The Montgomery College Food Forest

What do you think when you hear " Community Food Forest"?

Picture a forest full of fruit and vegetables, bringing communities together around one of our most essential needs: food. That's exactly what took place at Montgomery College's campus in Takoma Park, where an engaged community, caring for one another, came together to develop a food forest as a first step toward community resilience for future generations.

Dandelion Foodscapes was fortunate to be involved in the initial design and installation coordination process for this project. A nearly 20,000-square-foot site at the corner of Philadelphia and Chicago Avenues that's now home to fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs, vegetables, and pollinator plants, all designed to grow together the way a real forest ecosystem does.

The project started with a simple, urgent problem. Roughly 40% of Montgomery College students experience food insecurity. Horticulture student Tierney Acosta and the nonprofit Community Food Forest Collective (CFFC) brought the idea to campus administrators and got the green light to turn an underused stretch of grass into something that could actually feed people.

That's where the design work began. Rather than one master plan handed down from a single designer, the site was broken into sections, with several local designers each taking ownership of a portion of the land. Dandelion Foodscape was involved in coordinating between those pieces: working with local community members, CFFC, and fellow designers to develop a cohesive site plan that let each section's design breathe on its own while still functioning as one connected system.

This work leaned on permaculture design principles, which meant it was never just about what looked good on paper. It was about water flow, soil health, sun exposure, and how people would actually move through and use the space. Weaving all of that together, across multiple designers and a community with real stake in the outcome, was as much a listening exercise as a technical one.

The design work also included the first temperate climate syntropic agroforestry design in the Maryland area, co-designed with David Jannotta. Syntropic agroforestry is a planting method that stacks trees, shrubs, and support species together in dense, intentional layers to accelerate soil building and food production. Think of it as a Miyawaki forest system, but edible.

What makes this project stand out isn't just the plant list but rather it's who it's for. This food forest is a public space meant to feed students and neighbors, host workshops and festivals, and give the community a place to learn and gather. It has been featured in Bethesda Magazine, and DC News Now, and CFFC has continued expanding the vision with additional plantings and events on campus.

Projects like this one are also a local answer to a set of goals the whole world is working toward. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lay out a shared roadmap for building a healthier, more resilient planet by 2030, and the Montgomery College Food Forest touches several of them directly.

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Zero Hunger (SDG 2): growing free, fresh food on campus for a student population where 40% face food insecurity.

Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3): access to fresh produce and green space for rest, movement, and community connection.

Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11): turning an underused patch of grass into shared, productive public space in a dense urban corridor.

Climate Action (SDG 13): using perennial, layered planting systems like syntropic agroforestry to build soil, store carbon, and reduce reliance on resource-intensive agriculture.

Life on Land (SDG 15): restoring soil health and biodiversity through native and pollinator-friendly plantings.

For me, this project captured exactly why I started Dandelion Foodscapes by being involved in design work that's rooted in community need, built collaboratively, and meant to outlast any one person's involvement.

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Project at a Glance

Client / Partner: Community Food Forest Collective (CFFC), in partnership with Montgomery College

Location: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus, Montgomery College, MD

Site Size: ~20,000 sq ft

Dandelion Foodscapes' Role: Design coordination and site plan development; installation lead for the syntropic agroforestry section

Timeline: August 2023 – April 2024

Key Design Approach: Permaculture principles, syntropic agroforestry, community-informed site planning

Outcome: A public, productive food forest addressing food insecurity for a student population where 40% face food insecurity, alongside expanded community programming (workshops, festivals, education)