The first trees, 2011–2014

The Vriksh Mitra–Gram Mitra Abhiyan began on 3 July 2011 with 5,000 fruit saplings in villages near Bareilly. There was no corporate funding and no camp stage: volunteers took saplings from village to village, explained why a fruit tree in the courtyard matters for a child's nutrition, and planted alongside the families.

Over four years the campaign grew to 28,000 fruit trees in more than 40 villages of the Bareilly region. By June 2015, when our team went back to survey them, many were already bearing fruit — guava, mango, lemon and more, shading courtyards and feeding the families who had planted them. That evidence is what persuaded the Foundation to take the campaign to a new scale the same year.