About
Neighborhood Forest began with a simple mission: to
give every child the joy of planting and watching their
very own tree grow.
The seed for this mission was planted back in the early
1990s, when Vikas Narula was a college student at
Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa.
There, he was introduced to a free tree project created
by David Kidd of Ohio. Inspired, Vikas and his friends
adopted the project and gave away tens of
thousands of trees to schoolchildren across southeast
Iowa.
After college, Vikas moved to Minneapolis and met his
wife, Priya, shortly thereafter. Years later, as
their oldest son prepared to start kindergarten — they
felt called to rekindle that early love of giving trees to
kids.
What started with 4 schools in Minneapolis, in 2010, has
grown to over 3,500 schools, libraries, and youth groups
spanning all 50 states and 7 Canadian provinces. We have
also successfully conducted pilots in Mexico, Ghana,
Haiti, and Uganda.
Today, Neighborhood Forest continues to inspire
children to plant trees, care for nature, and help create
greener, healthier neighborhoods.
The little tree that inspired it all…
This photo collage tells the story of a silver maple tree I planted next to my Mom's house in 1993 when it was just six inches tall. By 1998—the year Priya and I got married—it was already towering above us! Twenty years after planting it, in 2013, I brought my kids to visit this once-tiny tree, now far too big for them to climb! Watching this tree grow alongside our family has been a profound joy.
This feeling—the magic of planting something small and witnessing it grow and flourish—is what inspired the birth of Neighborhood Forest. We now get to share that joy with hundreds of thousands (soon to be millions) of families.
We love seeing the photos of kids growing up with their trees. Thank you for being part of this beautiful journey.
~ Vikas Narula, Co-Founder