What we do
Fruitstitute is a fruit tree care and education service rooted in the principles of regenerative land management. We have pioneered a new industry for the backyard landscape by grafting the practices of arboriculture and orcharding - Fruitsitute is the only LA based company to cross pollinate this knowledge.
We prune trees, plant trees and cultivate healthy soil, providing our clients with nutritious, home-grown fruit. Education is a core component of what we do. We share our specialized knowledge through consultations, workshops and seasonal fruit tree care. If you give your fruit trees a little, they’ll give you a lot…the proof is in the fruit.
Founders
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Joanna Glovinsky
Recognizing the need for fruit tree care and education, Joanna launched the Fruitstitute in March 2018. Her love for gardening and growing began at the Ron Finley Project where she planted and tended edible gardens on the streets of South LA. Formally trained in fruit tree care at Huntington Ranch, Joanna knew after her first class that she was born to prune.
She soon joined forces with the public art project, Fallen Fruit as a Fruit Tree Specialist and Community Engagement Manager. It was during this time she began teaching people how to take care of public fruit trees and fell in love with abundant LA, inspiring the launch of Fruitstitute.
Joanna holds a Masters in Health and Social Change from USC Annenberg School of Communication.
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Chris Lynch
Chris has been with Fruitstitute since the very beginning and serves as a board member. He leads our team and is one of our most experienced pruners. Only recently did he discover he is the descendant of a long line of French plum orchardists, so you could say that growing food is in Chris’ DNA. Chris is committed to teaching, sharing and making as much compost as possible because composting fights climate change, creates drought-resistance and makes food & fruit much more nutritious.
Our purpose
As a Public Benefit Corporation we have 2 bottom lines. One is financial. The other is to “generate social and public good”. As a company structured this way, the public benefit bottom line ensures Fruitstitute will stay true to its founding ethos of doing well and doing good with or without the involvement of its founders.
As stated in our Articles of Incorporation, "This corporation shall have the… specific public benefit purpose of sequestering carbon through growing and planting fruit trees and building healthy soil and creating and implementing educational tools for teaching people about trees, soil and growing their own fruit."
Accordingly, the public benefit metrics Fruitstitute uses to measure annual performance (how the company defines success) are:
Sequestering carbon through growing and planting fruit trees and building healthy soil, measured by…
# of trees planted/ year: 375 in 2022
Units of compost sold/ year: 1731 cu ft as of 2022 (that’s roughly 346 bathtubs!)
# of properties serviced: 1266 as of Dec 2022
Creating and implementing educational tools for teaching people about trees, soil and growing their own fruit, reflected by...
# of workshops and educational materials published: 24 as of Dec 2022
# of consultations completed: 323 in 2022
