Detroit Food Policy Council Board of Directors 2011-2012

foodDETROIT policy council Detroit Food System Report 2011-2012 Detroit Food Policy Council Board of Directors 2011-2012

Phil Jones, Chair Food Processors Suezette Olaker, M.D., Vice Chair Nutrition and Wellbeing DeWayne Wells, Treasurer Emergency Food Providers Dan Carmody, Secretary Wholesale Food Distributors

Ashley Atkinson Sustainable Agriculture Marilyn NeferRa Barber At Large Charity Hicks Environmental Justice Lisa Johanon Retail Food Stores Myra Lee At Large Minsu Longiaru Food Industry Workers Roxanne M. Moore At Large Kami Pothukuchi, Ph.D. Colleges and Universities Sharon Quincy Appointee, Detroit Dept. of Health and Wellness Willie Spivey At Large Olga Stella Urban Planning Myrtle Thompson Curtis At Large Kathryn Lynch Underwood Appointee, Detroit City Council Pam Weinstein Farmers’ Markets Betti Wiggins At Large Marja Winters Appointee, City of Detroit Mayor’s Oﬃce Malik Yakini K-12 Schools

The cover of this DETROIT FOOD POLICY COUNCIL STAFF report is a photo of living art created by Coordinator Barbara Barefield, primarily from food CHERYL A.SIMON grown in Detroit and found at Wayne Program Manager SEED Farmers’ KIBIBI BLOUNT5DORN Market at Wayne State University. 2934 Russell Street Detroit, Michigan 48207 313.833.0396 [email protected] www.detroitfoodpolicycouncil.net Table of Contents Everybody Eats ...... 2 School Food ...... 5 Food Service ...... 5 Federal Guidelines and Programs for Healthier Children ...... 6 Big Nutrition Changes at DPS ...... 7 First Lady’s Efforts to Support Balanced Diets ...... 7 Challenges to Ensuring Quality ...... 8 Helping Students Acquire New Tastes ...... 9 School Agriculture ...... 10 Goals of the DPS Garden Collaborative ...... 11 Local Agriculture, Food and Jobs ...... 12 Benefits and Challenges of School Gardens ...... 12 Urban Agriculture ...... 14 Detroit’s Agricultural History, The Early Years ...... 15 Growing Food During Depressions and Wars ...... 15 Farming Revival ...... 16 Transforming Vacant Spaces to Grow Food ...... 17 Gardening Coalitions ...... 17 Food Security and Food Justice ...... 19 Youth Movement ...... 20 Legal Issues ...... 22 Detroit Gardens ...... 23 Composting ...... 24 Some of Detroit’s Gardens ...... 24-28 D-Town ...... 24 Brother Nature’s Farm ...... 25 Feedom Freedom Growers ...... 25 Brightmoor ...... 26 Earthworks Urban Farm ...... 27 Conclusions and Credits ...... 28 Map of 2012 Detroit Community Markets ...... Inside back cover Photo courtesy of Earthworks Urban Farm Urban of Earthworks Photo courtesy

Above: Earthworks Urban Farm. Right: A young girl enjoys the Wayne State University Farmers Market, where produce from Earthworks is sold. Everybody eats, and in order to thrive, everybody needs fresh, nutritious food.

cquiring and distributing food is one of the basic functions of community, and it is our view that each community should have the power to control and maintain their food systems. Just as food a A fuels the body and makes it possible to function on a day-to-day basis, food systems fuel a com- Urban agriculture is a munity and make it function — from taking care of the earth, feeding people and connecting them, to worldwide movement creating jobs, wealth and power. and Detroit is one of its These principles drive the Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC), established in 2008 by the Detroit City leaders. We stand on the Council, which recognizes the issues and potential of food activism. We want to eat well, be healthy, connect to one another, generate meaningful work and influence the food systems of Detroit. cusp of realizing the Urban agriculture is a worldwide movement and Detroit is one of its leaders. We stand on the cusp of dream of a self-sufficient, realizing the dream of a self-sufficient, just and sustainable food system. Locally grown food is fresher, has just and sustainable a smaller carbon footprint because it doesn’t have to be driven around in trucks, and is appropriate to your food system. climate in addition to empowering residents to control their own food. The goal of the DFPC is to empower individuals and community organizations to partake in the food systems as growers, processors, sellers, preparers, consumers and planners. The activities to achieve these goals are necessary in part because Detroiters are not well-served by the current system. Fresh nutritional food is difficult to come by, and the city, along with many other urban areas, was declared a food desert in a study done by researcher Mari Gallagher and funded by LaSalle Bank in 2007.

2 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report With such high poverty and unemployment rates, and lack of ability to easily access fresh, nutritious food, many adults and children [in Detroit] are food insecure, if not in crisis, not knowing where their next meal is coming from. 0 Food deserts are communities where mainstream grocery stores to be fixed in Detroit for the city to thrive. Inability to easily travel to are either absent or not accessible to low income shoppers because work, to shopping destinations, or schools, adds to the plight of city they are too far away or too expensive. dwellers where 36.4 percent — more than one in three people — There are significant health impacts in food deserts because the live below the poverty level. It’s even worse for children with more mainly processed food that is easily available at convenience stores, gas stations and fast food restaurants are laden with fats, salt and sugar. Diets high in these substances are known to cause serious illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which in turn lead to heart disease, kidney disease, cancer and other ailments. According to the American Diabetes Association, two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke. Far too many Detroiters suffer from these ailments. Voices of Detroit Initiative, a coalition of local governments and healthcare agencies, reports that 38 percent of people in the Conner Creek Village neighborhood suffer from high blood pressure. The best prescription to stop this plague is a food-educated population with access to plenty of fresh, nutritional fruits and vegetables. a The lack of access to fresh, healthy foods is Photo: Barbara Barefield complicated by the fact that there are no national chain supermarkets in Detroit. The last one, Farmer Jack’s, abandoned the city in 2007. There are independent supermarkets in the city but they are inadequate to serve the needs of Detroit’s 713,000-plus residents. The Detroit Food Justice Task Force describes the situation thus: than 50 percent of them living in poverty. Detroit’s unemployment “In the city of Detroit, the most accessible food-related establish- rate was 15.8 percent in May 2012 according to the U.S. Department ments are party stores, dollar stores, fast-food restaurants and gas of Labor, about twice the national average. The city is negotiating stations. Although most neighborhoods may have a grocery store with the state government in an effort to find a way out of the city’s within a ‘reasonable’ distance, the quality and selection of food items financial straits. We are the poorest big city in the United States. is exceedingly lacking. Most city stores have a very limited variety of unprocessed (fresh) vegetables and fruits. Most foods are canned, a boxed, frozen and/or highly processed. Highly processed foods are With such high poverty and unemployment rates, and lack nutrient-poor, with excessive salt, sugar, and harmful fats. These of ability to easily access fresh, nutritious food, many adults stores also lack food alternatives for persons with the chronic con- and children are food insecure, if not in crisis, not knowing where ditions, such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, who re- their next meal is coming from. If there is a meal it may be nutritionally quire low-salt, sugar-free, healthy carbohydrates and healthy fats. substandard. The DFPC defines community food security as “the con- These and other chronic health conditions exist and are growing at dition which exists when all of the members of a community have ac- alarming rates in the African-American community.” cess, in close proximity, to adequate amounts of nutritious, culturally The 2010 census found that one in three Detroit households does appropriate food at all times, from sources that are environmentally not have a vehicle and in some neighborhoods it is as few as one in sound and just.” five. Public transportation is abysmal and it is getting worse. The city More than just getting food, people need food that is has announced more cuts to the bus system. Public transportation nutritious, affordable and easily available, food that they know is so unreliable that many think it is the number one issue that needs how to prepare and have the facilities to do so, and food that comes

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report 3 from sources that do not exploit land, The first steps toward creating this food sys- people or animals in the process tem vision have already taken place. The City Plan- of producing it. We believe that ning Commission’s Urban Agriculture Work Group, this is a basic human right. in partnership with DFPC and others, has devel- “Overall in the community, the oped language for city agriculture policy general effort is to eat food that is grown on zoning issues, defining gardens closer to where we live,” says Renee The 2012 annual report and farms, composting facilities, Wallace, director of community based focuses on Urban Agriculture farmers’ markets, greenhouses, prop- food systems for GenesisHOPE, a erty maintenance, nuisance issues community development corporation and School Food. and more. affiliated with the Genesis Lutheran Growing food is basic to creating the Relationships have been devel- Church. overall food system to meet the needs oped to work on amending the “In the community it’s about increas- of Detroiters. School food represents Michigan Right to Farm Act to ing access. Most of the food in the one of the single largest providers of accommodate a city farming industry. community is coming from convenience nutrition in the city, and the most Market gardens have developed in type corner stores. How do we get good several areas of the city and small food important group of food consumers. food on the shelves in the store? How do processing businesses have sprung up. The we improve access and become part of the Together they form the core of Greening of Detroit, through three training production itself at a higher level than today. the DFPC mission. gardens run by its Garden Resources Program, … People in the community are driving all of that sells food to 20 Detroit restaurants. Detroit has work. In our boundaries, there are Gleaners Commu- more community gardens per square mile than any nity Food Bank, Earthworks, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. other city in the United States. That growth and potential We have some anchors here already. explains the interest of corporate enterprises such as Hantz Farms and “Now what else can we do? Can we start a food processing center the proposed east side Michigan State University urban farming and a small business food incubator? While everybody is talking about research center. global, regional, state, and city, we are here in this community. What Community activists look at such corporate and major institutional can we do right here where we live and worship and pay?” enterprises with a wary eye. Local gardeners have been working for two There are many organizations and individuals who are part of the decades to create infrastructure, educate gardeners and the public, and movement and emerging infrastructure to create food security in now that they have done the groundwork, there is concern that other Detroit and generally improve the lives of its citizens. They include the interests will take over an industry that may be ready to explode. Detroit DFPC, Eastern Market Corporation, the Detroit Black Community Food agriculturists don’t want to see what they’ve been working so hard to Security Network, Greening of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, the build — a food system that is just, equitable, healing, empowering and thousands of community, market, school and family gardens in the city, sustainable — diverted by corporate interests that may not care about the Detroit Food Justice Task Force, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Gleaners developing the local community. However, one plus side of this recent Community Food Bank, United Way of Southeast Michigan, and many interest is that it adds even more of a sense that urban agriculture is a others. viable route to recreating Detroit A 2008 USDA Report on the local food and farm economy reported local food sales of $4.8 billion nationally. The work of thousands of local a residents has grown to such a critical level that the industry, and it is The Detroit Food Policy Council is responding to Detroit’s indeed an industry, is ready to blow up — particularly in Detroit where food crisis, and in helping to build a city-based system that en- there are some 20 square miles of unused land (out of a total of 138 hances food security, health and builds wealth for residents. square miles) laying fallow where food could be growing. Our mission is: “nurturing the development and maintenance of a Detroiters need to be part of that industry and benefit from the sustainable, localized food system and food-secure city of Detroit in money it generates. To that end, farmers’ markets are popping up at which all of its residents are hunger-free, healthy and benefit econom- schools, churches and other locations around town. Gardeners are sell- ically from the food system that impacts their lives.” ing at tables in established markets, helping to create markets, selling DFPC focuses on: to restaurants, serving at soup kitchens, and sharing with neighbors. • Current access to quality food in Detroit The annual DFPC Food Summit addresses the entire system of food • Hunger and Malnutrition, Impacts/Effects of an Inadequate Diet production, its consumption and other elements. This year’s summit in- • Citizen Education cluded sessions that ranged from Finding Good Food, Food Sovereignty • Economic Injustice in the Food System and The Impact on Nutrition in Our Institutions, to the Restaurant • Urban Agriculture Opportunities Center of Michigan, Urban Agriculture Policy and Advo- • The Role of Schools and other Public Institutions cacy, and Planting Seeds for a Good Business Ecosystem and more. • Emergency Response

4 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report School Food When it comes to school food there are two basic issues to address: The first is the actual food served in schools. The other is agriculture, which is learning about growing food, nutrition, food processing and career possibilities in the food system. For the purposes of this report we’ll mostly address these issues separately but each area touches upon the other. Indeed agriculture could be seen as the behemoth devouring the entire subject. Photo courtesy of DTEPhoto courtesy Energy Garden

Evergreen Academy of Design and Technology students at the Osborn High School greenhouse tend plants they will soon eat.

Food Service In Detroit Public Schools, ood that is served and consumed at school involves factors ranging from federal guidelines and the largest individual vendors, to health, culture and issues of supply and demand. There are so many elements to school provider of school foods Ffood in Detroit that anyone who thinks it’s about a hair-netted lunch lady sliding mystery meat onto in the city, all children a tray would be totally missing the mark. who want it are served First of all, in Detroit Public Schools (DPS), the largest individual provider of school foods in the city, all breakfast, lunch and children who want it are served breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s more than 100,000 meals each day to about 68,000 students, some of them in charter schools. Also, it’s not just about what is being served, but dinner. That’s more than what is available in vending machines or snacks sold at school facilities. The food ﬁght may have once been 100,000 meals each day to a staple of school life but the real battle today is against the obesity epidemic with its attendant illnesses about 68,000 students.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food 5 One in three Ameri- such as diabetes, high blood pres- student. Some parents pick up salty snacks and sugary drinks, drivers can children is con- sure, heart disease, kidney disease of the obesity epidemic, for their children to eat for lunch. sidered overweight and depression — which adds up to However, with obesity and its related illnesses, the pressure is on a shorter life expectancy. One in from governments, parents, health professionals and community or obese. Healthier three American children is consid- forces to provide healthier meals on limited budgets. Indeed, in an eating is the cure ered overweight or obese. Healthier eﬀort to save dollars in the face of shrinking budgets most school for what ails them. eating is the cure for what ails them. systems have turned to vendors rather than preparing food them- While delivering healthier food is selves at the schools. DPS did this for several years because it was a key step, it is a struggle regardless of whether the provider is DPS cost eﬀective, but has taken the responsibility back. And the pressure or a vendor at a charter school or other educational institution. It’s on those vendors to provide better food with fewer resources creates even an issue when parents pack a lunch and send it along with the daily challenges although it can lead to creativity.

Federal Guidelines and Programs for Healthier Children There are two federal issues in play when it comes to school United Way for Southeastern Michigan, testified to Congress food. One is USDA guidelines. In 2009 the Institute of Medicine before the Child Nutrition Act was passed. “They are more likely of the National Academies (IOM) released a report titled, “School to be absent and tardy, and to have behavioral issues and attention Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children,” which evaluated problems. Teens experiencing hunger are more likely to be how school lunch programs could comply with USDA dietary suspended from school and have difficulty getting along with their guidelines. The report called for increasing the amount and variety classmates.” of fruits and vegetables, separating them into different categories Everything from meals to snacks to vending machine items, all where they were once lumped together. The guidelines said foods served or sold on campus during school days will have to schools should provide fewer potatoes and more dark green and meet nutritional standards set by the U.S. Department of Agricul- orange vegetables, more whole grains, and less fat, sugar and salt. ture. Those guidelines were rolled out in January 2012 and In general, there should be fewer highly processed foods and more include: fresh, natural and nutritious offerings. • Ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every The other big impact originating from the federal government day of the week is the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 (also known as the • Substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods Child Nutrition Act) which funds initiatives to cut obesity and • Offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties feed more low-income children. It gives the USDA the authority • Limiting calories based on the age of children being served to to set nutritional standards for all food sold and served in schools ensure proper portion size (not just lunches), provides additional funding to schools that • Increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, meet the nutritional standards, helps communities establish local trans fats and sodium farm to school networks, Everything from meals provides aid for schools to to snacks to vending start gardens and expands machine items, all foods access to drinking water. served or sold on A key provision of the bill is campus during school a pilot program in three states days will have to meet (Michigan is one of them) that nutritional standards allows more universal meal set by the U.S. Depart- access in high poverty areas ment of Agriculture. through the Community Eligi-

bility Option — which means in Detroit that all students Photo: Clarence Johnson Productions are eligible for government-reimbursed breakfast, lunch and dinner at school. School authorities say that the program removes the stigma of poverty that would cause some students to skip meals because standing in the food line labeled them as poor. Now any student can get a free meal. “Children experiencing hunger have lower math scores and are more likely to repeat a grade,” Eric Davis, director of

6 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food “We turned our deep fryers oﬀ. You can’t get a french fry in Detroit Public Schools; we don’t do any deep fat frying. … In order to impact childhood obesity we have to change the culture, change the habits, and the avail-

Photo: Clarence Johnson Productions ability of the food.” —Betti Wiggins Executive Director, DPS Oﬃce of School Nutrition

Big Nutrition Changes at DPS two meatless days a week. We’ve changed our menu and the quality “Two years ago when the Institute of Medicine came out with of food by going out and purchasing better food. And you also have the new standard, we changed,” says Betti Wiggins, executive director to redefine what food insecurity is. If I am eating junk food, I’m food of the Office of School Nutrition for Detroit Public Schools (DPS). “We insecure. If I’m eating empty calories that are causing me to have all turned our deep fryers off. You can’t get a french fry in Detroit Public these adult onset diseases, I’m food insecure. So I think that in order Schools; we don’t do any deep fat frying. We give our kids eight to impact childhood obesity we have to change the culture, change ounces of water with their lunch meal. We are changing. We have the habits and the availability of the food.”

First Lady’s Eﬀorts to Support Balanced Diets “As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet,” said First Lady Michelle Obama during the rollout of USDA standards. “And when we’re putting in all that eﬀort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria. When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home. We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables.” Obama sets a lofty standard. Sometimes the food served in our homes is impacted by what we can get, or is less nutritious because some cultures may lean more toward traditional food preparation, such as deep frying. Sometimes resources such as money and transportation to obtain fresher food just aren’t available. Often parents need nutrition education just as much as their children do. At the very least schools should be a positive nutritional influence, and the federal government has an incentive for that. School districts that keep up with the USDA guidelines will be reimbursed 6 cents more per meal through the National School Lunch Program. The increase, which is on top of the usual annual increase for inflation, is the first for federally-funded lunches in 30 years according to the School Nutrition Association. According to information on the USDA website the federal government reimburses urban schools $1.78 for each breakfast served, $3.13 for each lunch or dinner served and 73.5 cents for a snack. Many Detroit schools have been trying to achieve USDA standards, although it is a struggle to establish supply lines and food preparation readiness within tight budgets.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food 7 Left: Students harvest salad greens for school meals at the Osborn Photo courtesy of DTEPhoto courtesy EnergyClarence Garden | Inset: Johnson Productions High School greenhouse. Inset: Students at the Gompers Elemen- tary School enjoy fresh fruit, vegetables and milk everyday.

school culture,” says Yakini, who stepped down as principal of Nsoroma in 2011. “It’s difficult for a smaller lunch provider to present high quality food. That presents a real challenge. The biggest challenge is the small profit margin for school lunches. It’s very difficult to present a balanced lunch that meets federal nutrition requirements with milk in the amount that the government gives. … “We tried to pair lunch providers with small farmers in southeast Michigan. It didn’t materialize. Part of that challenge with school food is that most things are ready for harvest in June, July and August when school is out. There are limited things you can do in May and the first part of June. Dealing with seasons and the availability of certain fruits or vegetables makes them unavailable or more costly.” Tammy Tedesco, the owner of Edibles Rex, which provides about 8,000 meals each day for Deep fried foods are among the worst 5,000 students at more than 20 Detroit charter culprits in the youth obesity epidemic. schools, feels the pressure on her business. For Not only does deep frying add calories starters, schools don’t pay the entire amount and vein-clogging fats to food, frying reimbursed from the federal government to the actually kills nutrients that are in the food. caterer. They have overhead involved such as Fried food also exacerbates conditions such warmers, refrigeration and paying servers. as acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome. “There are always challenges,” says Tedesco. Hot dogs, particularly the low-cost varieties “Whatever the federal funding is, the schools don’t use generally served in institutional settings, are among the entire amount to go toward food service. They hold the mystery meats made from leftover bits and pieces of back whatever for internal operating costs, 50 to 75 cents, the full various animals after the prime cuts have been removed, and include amount never goes completely toward food service. Each school de- ground-up gristle and bone. These aren’t things anyone should eat termines an amount they want to pay for a meal and puts it out for regularly let alone be fed to children during their formative years. bids. Then we have to make it work on our end, from food costs to DPS and others are trying to change the direction of school food labor costs, delivery and fuel.” permanently. The recent change of name from the Office of Food The government does make some commodities available but Service to Office of School Nutrition is evidence of the change in they have not always been the best. That may be changing with the focus at the DPS. new USDA guidelines, because they encourage schools to partner Even though there are still many improvements to make, Wiggins with local providers. In addition to local food being fresher, it lowers is proud of how far DPS has come. She carries photos of baked acorn the carbon footprint if food doesn’t have to be shipped vast dis- squash and black eyed peas prepared and served at Marcus Garvey tances. But, as Eastern Market’s Dan Carmody points out, it’s not as Jr. school where facilities include a commercial kitchen. Having easy as calling up a supplier and getting what you would like to have grown up on a Wayne County farm, Wiggins uses her extensive con- delivered. Buying food in institutional settings, particularly fresh tacts to rustle up fresh Michigan produce in the spring. In March the food, is complicated because food service providers are used to stan- DPS menu features potatoes from Dundee, Mich., and in May Michi- dard products that they are set up to process. Food planning is more gan asparagus is a featured item. difficult without standardization. Take potatoes for example. One national provider of potatoes can guarantee that each case of potatoes Challenges to Ensuring Quality delivered will contain 100 potatoes weighing three ounces each. That That’s a great commendation but generally schools struggle as makes it pretty easy to plan meals. But things get bumpy when you they try to practice what they preach regarding diet and nutrition. move to a local provider. At Nsoroma Institute, a former private school that is now a public “The challenge always comes in when they want fresh local pro- charter school, getting the catering company to deliver fresher, duce,” says Tedesco, whose clients include Thompson Charter healthier foods was an ongoing effort for school founder Malik Yakini. Schools. “Generally that produce costs more; it may not have been “At Nsoroma, health consciousness has always been part of washed and counted. When we buy locally they may not have the

8 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food “Kids are really interested in food. A lot of it has to do with exposure, that’s why we do the tastings. … I think that generally we’re missing a large opportunity to educate kids in the cafeteria. There are steps along the way to creating an awareness of proper nutrition.” — Alison Heeres, University of Michigan’s Project Healthy Schools

packaging capability that can sort and give us a three-ounce potato uniformity across the board. If I buy a case of apples from a certain vendor, it’s always 135 count in a case; from a local farmer a case may be from 50 to 150 apples. Whole grains is not a challenge; local bakers provide that product. Every- body is on board with brown rice, whole wheat pasta.... Some schools have an agenda and want healthier items. Some schools just want to make sure kids are eating each day. It varies from school Photo: Clarence Johnson Productions to school on their plans; menus are customized to our clients.”

Helping Students Acquire New Tastes Alison Heeres works at Thompson Charter Schools as part of the University of Michigan’s Proj- ect Healthy Schools. The project targets getting kids to spend less time in front of a screen and getting Students at Gompers Elementary School try the DPS’ signature stoplight salad. more physical activity in addition to the dietary and nutrition goals they share. She sees the high sugar and sodium con- food. One way that Heeres tries to bridge the gap is to hold food tasting tent foods that the kids eat. While Heeres works with schools and sessions with students to help expose them to unusual foods. children to present and choose more healthy eating choices, she has “Kids are really interested in food,” says Heeres. “A lot of it has to an appreciation for the challenges off-site food preparers face. do with exposure, that’s why we do the tastings. Last week we had a “There are issues in how they’re used to receiving things, how whole grain bread tasting with stuff from Avalon Bakery. We talked they need to receive things in order to keep their labor costs to what about whole grains. In order to make decisions you have to know they are,” says Heeres. “Sometimes it doesn’t have to do with the food what the food is made out of. Students wouldn’t connect that bread costs; it has to do with the labor costs and preparing.... If food is not and cereal are made of out of the same things. You need to know prepared on-site, it limits what you can serve. It’s prepared hours what grain is. I think that generally we’re missing a large opportunity ahead of time and delivered to various service spots.” to educate kids in the cafeteria. There are steps along the way to cre- She also understands why kids might not want to eat some foods ating an awareness of proper nutrition.” that they are unfamiliar with. Cultural learning makes a difference. If Education is a vast tapestry. One thread is in the cafeteria, but you have never seen an eggplant or eaten an eggplant, you probably there are ways that food can be woven into many different subjects. will not eat an eggplant when you encounter one at school or any- Science is an easy entry point into food issues. Planting seeds and where else. The same thing goes for kale, spaghetti squash or any- watching them sprout and grow is standard. Social studies can incor- thing else that’s a mystery. Even if it’s familiar it has to be prepared porate cultural aspects of why people eat certain kinds of food and in a recognizable manner. For instance, beans may be a staple at how it is prepared. Math can address proportions, ratios, volumes and many African-American tables, but those beans are probably cooked other measurements. Food-based education can be a vast resource. in a recipe that goes back generations in the family, probably sea- Joanne Lamar, who reads to small children at Sampson Academy soned with ham hocks, salt pork or fat back. Heeres witnessed school on the west side, works with a program that identifies “Yuck” or “Yum” children turning their nose up at beans in a different setting. foods. Doritos go in the yuck basket. Raisins and fruit go in the yum “Cold bean salad,” she says, “kids weren’t used to beans being basket. Teachers also talk with them about growing food. “They get cold; bean salad didn’t make sense to them.” excited about planting carrots,” says Lamar. “Some kids might say, ‘I Schools generally don’t have the resources to teach nutrition much don’t like beans,’ but they liked the idea of growing the vegetables.” beyond the basic food groups. It’s hard enough to be able to pay staff Growing the vegetables, now that’s an idea whose time has come working in the cafeteria let alone afford a nutritionist teaching about to schools across Detroit.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food 9 Photo: JimWestPhoto.com

High school students work in a garden at the Catherine Ferguson Academy, then a Detroit public school. The gardeners are volunteers working in the Summer in the City program, which puts students to work on community improvement projects. The Academy is a school for pregnant teens and teen mothers. It maintains a farm and garden to help students learn about responsibility.

School Agriculture

n April 23, the Detroit School Garden Collaborative held a press conference at William J. Beckham Academy to announce its inaugural effort: Developing a food-based education system at 45 of ODetroit’s public schools. To begin, each garden will feature at least three raised beds utilizing The goal is not just a few recycled materials, compost bins, gravel walkways and a training center staffed by teachers who have been educated in agricultural skills. It’s an ambitious beginning for even more ambitious goals to help develop fun plots at various an agricultural economic structure in the city — not just food for now, but jobs for the next generation. schools; it’s to have a well- The goal is not just a few fun plots at various schools; it’s to have a well-established agricultural program established agricultural that prepares students to become farmers, grocers, food processors, or cooks — anything in the food program that prepares system where jobs are necessary. Part of the plan is to develop community gardens on available land in students to become neighborhoods around the perimeter of the schools, and to address the general environmental issues in farmers, grocers, food these areas. “These gardens will be used for educational purposes; access to healthy food that includes education processors or cooks — is equally significant,” Alicia Meriweather, executive director of the DPS Department of Science, said at the anything in the food press conference. “This collaboration is very exciting. It will provide students with equitable access to system where jobs are healthy food and healthy education. They will be doing experiments in the gardens. There will be infor- necessary. mation shared about nutrition and the basics of seed growth. Then you talk about the elements that are necessary for growth, for healthy living, all of those things come into these gardens and the garden project.” Meriweather cited agricultural innovator George Washington Carver in addressing the importance of

10 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food Left: Building raised beds at the Bates Academy.

Below: Sprouting gardens at the Gompers Elementary School.

Lower left: Beckham Academy Principal Philip Vanhooks and DPS Oﬃce of School Nutrition Executive Director Betti Wiggins, with students at the groundbreaking of the school’s garden. Photos: Clarence Johnson Productions

“This collaboration is very exciting. It will provide students with equitable access to healthy food and healthy education. … There will be gardening: “Since new developments are the products of a creative food comes from plastic bags in information shared about mind, we must stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every gas stations and convenience way possible.” stores. nutrition and the basics of “The goal for this garden is seed growth. Then you talk Goals of the Garden Collaborative that we’re going to change the about the elements that are Betti Wiggins, executive director of the Detroit Public Schools’ city,” says Donald Carter, a Beck- necessary for growth, for Oﬃce of School Nutrition, worked for a year to pull together the ham Academy teacher who is healthy living.” collaborative, which has resources ranging from a federal grant for responsible for the garden at that —Alicia Meriweather the gardening equipment, the Detroit Food Policy Council, the DPS’ location. “Betti Wiggins, who re- Executive Director, Department of Science and Oﬃce of Site Management, to Eastern ally initiated this, has put together xDPS Department of Science Market, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, the Greening of a plan that in 10 years you’re not Detroit, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Detroit going to recognize Detroit. We’re not going to be in that top obesity Medical Center, in addition to local community groups. It builds on group in America because we’re going to teach the children how to an urban agriculture system coalescing around individual growers grow healthy food, and they’re going to teach their parents. who have been producing in the city over the past 20 years. They “We’re not only going to teach them about urban gardens but seek to yoke that energy to young Detroiters who may think that also agriculture, which is a bigger picture. They’re not only going to

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food 11 “We’re not going to be in that top obesity group in America because we’re going to teach the children how to grow healthy food, and they’re going to teach their parents.” $ — Donald Carter, Beckham Academy teacher and garden coordinator additives. It makes sense to develop a local food industry in Detroit and to train young people to harness this industry for their own good. Detroiters spend $200 million each year at grocery stores outside of the city because of real or perceived shortages of fresh produce and high prices caused by high insurance rates. That’s a billion dollars over a 10-year period. Capturing a significant piece of that market would be huge for Detroit retailers. Photos courtesy of AlisonPhotos Heeres courtesy Institutional buyers such as the DPS, charter schools or food vendors who service schools can help drive this industry. In fact, their combined buying power could be the key link to make it happen. Creating a food system to feed hundreds of thousands of children has to have spinoff possibilities. Wiggins and others are clear that the effort is not just about the public schools, it’s about a larger community coming together around food and education to create a just and equitable Alison Heeres works with students, above and food system that serves citizens well. right, in gardens and the classroom through the University of Michigan’s Project Healthy Schools Benefits and Challenges program at the Thompson Charter Schools. of School Gardens be able to feed themselves, there are billions of The first school crop, planted in the dollars in agriculture. We want the students to go spring and harvested in the fall, was served out and actually grow this food and we’re going to students as a stoplight salad, made from to have fairs where they can actually sell it. cherry tomatoes, zucchini and yellow They’re going to find out that it’s not only good squash — green, yellow and red. The stop- for their health, it’s good for their pocket books light salad will be truly farm-to-plate and their purses.” because it will be prepared and served in the school cafeterias. The gardens are main- Local Agriculture, Food and Jobs tained during the summer months by There is indeed significant money in agricul- gardeners hired by the program. ture. A 2011 USDA report titled “Direct and Inter- The need for gardeners highlights the mediated Marketing of Local Foods in the United States” found that partnership of The Greening of Detroit which trains gardeners vegetable, fruit and nut farms dominated the local foods industry through its Urban Roots Garden Program. But even those 45 part-time and grossed $4.8 billion in 2008. The USDA projected a gross of $7 plots hint at the scale of what could happen. DPS is the second largest billion for 2011, although those figures are not yet available. It also landowner in Detroit other than the city itself — 30 acres alone at the found the highest sales and value of local foods was in urban areas. old Northeastern High School site that’s been closed since 1975. With the world population projected to balloon from its current 7 Some of that land could be used to grow food. And since you’re grow- billion to 9 billion in 2050, according to United Nations estimates, ing food near a school, some of the food from those gardens should feeding people will be a challenge in coming decades. Even if the be making it into schools. There are about 70,000 students in DPS, local population doesn’t boom, we will still be competing with other many of whom get breakfast, lunch and after school meals. areas for potentially scarce food resources. And contrary to the as- “At a school, I think one of the important aspects of it is learning sumptions of many, most large farms don’t grow food, they grow in a way you can see the results of what you’re doing,” says Dana crops used in processing sweeteners, biofuels, animal feed, fiber and Applebaum, farm liaison at Catherine Ferguson Academy. “We

12 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food planted salad greens today and in 21 days we can eat a salad. They have salad to eat and they can also teach their kids and friends about how to grow a salad. It gives them a chance to be outside and exercise, and gives them skills to grow the food they want to grow.” Even the private Detroit Waldorf School uses the garden to teach the young ones. Although there’s no school-provided meal program there, they sometimes grab things out of the garden for cooking which is part of the curriculum. Kindergarteners learn to prepare some foods and learn about what foods are good for you. They knead bread dough as part of cooking and an exercise regimen. Wal- dorf students begin learning about farming in third grade. The bigger picture is the idea that they can make their own food and that they are the next stewards of the earth. Alison Heeres works with gardens in addition to in-class education as part U-M’s Project Healthy Schools program at the Thompson schools. She interacts with about 1,500 students and runs the garden program. If a school doesn’t have a garden, she helps them start one. Heeres preaches patience because all schools don’t have the resources to put a lot of focus on them. “I think the garden program is extremely important, but it takes time,” says Heeres. “Programs that are successful don’t have any outside force; they need a teacher who is passionate about it. Are they something that has become integrated into normal school life? I

don’t feel that has happened yet. Lucky for me two of my schools are Photos: JimWestPhoto.com on a balanced calendar, so I have most of my kids during the growing season. Kids need things to do. I don’t have access to all the kids, but I do have more intensive time in the summer.” Beckham Academy principal Philip Vanhooks talked about the bigger picture in terms of readying students for future employment. Agriculture is not only digging in the dirt and growing vegetables. Teachers and students bale hay Beckham is developing an aquaponics laboratory and plans to even- grown on a vacant lot in Detroit tually merge aquaponics with the gardening initiative — such as for the animals on a farm oper- recycling water from fish farming to vegetable farming. ated by the Detroit Public School “I think that doing that with environmental studies and urban system. Inset: A student milks a goat on a DPS urban farm. agriculture through the schools you create a career readiness program,” says Vanhooks. “Teaching students and children in the com- access to locally grown foods, munity to grow their own fruits and vegetables is career readiness. fruits and vegetables,” says … Most important, we are changing the way we as a community Wiggins. “The biggest challenge to me right now is the supply chain, look at agriculture.” finding the food. There is not enough crop out there to supply my It’s part of a farm-to-school program that is easy to see and needs. So we have to identify what those sources are and maximize understand. But farm-to-school isn’t just about growing and eating. that. That’s how I intend to introduce my kids to vegetables. It’s It’s education about grains and nutrition, jobs and careers, self suffi- locally grown, healthy and somebody in Michigan is getting paid, or ciency and building wealth in a community, and it’s about weaving there is a job.” a connection between schools and communities. Jobs are seen as the bottom line in rescuing the local economy. “Community gardens or small agricultural settings within the city People will get up and move to where the jobs are. When the jobs or buying locally grown produce from regional farmers, that’s the tie are literally growing up from the earth it keeps people rooted to their in with the schools program and urban agriculture — improving community.

Agriculture is not only digging in the dirt and growing vegetables. Beckham is developing an aquaponics laboratory and plans to eventually merge aquaponics with the gardening initiative — such as recycling water from ﬁsh farming to vegetable farming. Z

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | School Food 13 Urban Agriculture "Usilima hua huli.'' (If you don't farm, you are not eating.) — Bena (Tanzania) Proverb Photo: of Brightmoor Community Garden Courtesy

Brightmoor Community Garden

Crime declines when here is a sense of social responsibility among those who tend urban gardens. They meet their community gardens neighbors. They take environmental responsibility and improve neighborhood justice. Crime de- sprout up. Many people Tclines when community gardens sprout up. Many people garden to improve access to healthy food and to lift up their quality of life, to provide food security and better health, to save money and to garden to improve access survive. Gardening is also an act of resistance. It’s a political act, wrote Dr. Monica White, a sociologist at to healthy food and to lift Wayne State University, in a 2011 Michigan Citizen article. It is a way of overcoming the lack of quality food up their quality of life, to within the city without dependence on government or social agencies. Gardening is one way people step provide food security and up to improve their lives and communities. better health, to save It speaks to the spirit of Detroiters that all kinds of gardens have sprouted up seemingly everywhere money and to survive. around town in recent years. Gardens provide common space for social interaction and even alternative health care. Good nutrition prevents numerous diseases, and gardeners produce a variety of herbs that help treat various ailments. Gardens are also a cure for the fear and alienation from our neighbors that has

14 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture taken hold among many Detroiters, by involving them with each other in varying capacities. Urban agriculture is both a return to the city’s pre-industrial past and an innovative approach to a post-industrial future.

Detroit’s Agricultural History The Early Years Today’s urban agriculture is rooted in southeast Michigan’s rich history. The Kickapoo, Sauk and Fox people of southeastern Michigan, all part of the Algo- nquin language group and historically the first well- known cultures to live here, were skilled farmers who grew corn, beans, squash and tobacco. Women were considered owners of their fields, and during the sum- mers the tribes lived in large farming communities. They were fiercely independent and never assimilated into the encroaching European culture, eventually choosing to relocate further west and then southwest When Europeans, mostly French and Dutch explorers, ar- Map, above, is a copy of a 1796 map showing the ribbon farms rived in the area around 1610, in Detroit. they planted orchards. The first known written description of the Left: A farm on the Detroit River, area was by explorer Father early 1900s. Louis Hennepin, who wrote: “The country between these two Below: Mayor Pingree (second from right) in the midst of a Detroit lakes is very well situated and Potato Patch Farm, early 1890s. the soil is very fertile. The banks of the strait are vast meadows, Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library and the prospect is terminated with some hills covered with vineyard, trees bearing good fruit.” When city co-founder Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac first arrived in 1701, his first report to his superiors touted the “young and old fruit trees, weighed down by the sheer quantity of their fruit, give way and curve their branches toward the very fertile soil out of which they sprung.” He wrote that apples and plums littered the ground. Those apples were very important. Detroit later became known for its cider production. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, mission pear trees were known as a striking feature of the local landscape as the French had planted them on their farms lining the Detroit River. These “ribbon farms,” as they were called, were 200 to 800 feet wide and one to three miles long. Some of today’s streets, such as Chene, Dequindre and Beaubien were parallel to the boundaries of the farms and ing the depression of 1893, Mayor Hazen S. Pingree encouraged poor named after the landowners. Most of these farmers had kitchen residents to grow food on 430 acres of public land — including the gardens growing produce for their own use. They grew wheat, oats, city hall lawn, parks and other vacant areas. Known as Pingree’s corn, peas, pears, peaches and apples for market sale and raised live- Potato Patches, the program provided sites from one quarter- to one stock and poultry. half-acre in size, seeds, and instructions in three languages. Pingree was first ridiculed for his plan but three years into the program the Growing Food During Depressions and Wars value of food grown in those patches added up to more than the As industry grew in Southeast Michigan, farmland dwindled, but financial aid given to poor people. It was emulated in other cities every tough economic time has hailed a return to growing food. Dur- during the economic downturn of the mid-1890s.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 15 War Gardens [were] part of an eﬀort to get households to grow more of their own food so that produce from farms could be sent overseas. Farming inside cities was patriotic, and in some cases golf courses were plowed under for agriculture. e Photo left and below: Photo and below: left Walter P. Library, Reuther WSU

Above: In 1931 Thrift Gardens supplied work for the unemployed and food for the needy. It was inspired by the 1894 Potato Patch Plan through Mrs. Hazel Pingree Depew, the former Mayor’s daughter.

Right: Sailors from the Naval Armory plow the Gabriel Richard Park in Detroit, helping to prepare one of the many World War II Victory Gardens during the 1940s.

Inset, right: Children helped in the Victory Gardens in Detroit.

Although Great Lakes boat traffic made the city a minor industrial town in the late 1800s, it wasn’t until after 1910 when the auto industry took off, that Detroit truly became the Motor City. Still, agriculture maintained a campaign that included rationing, recycling, canning, and volunteer- hold on its people. Many of the immigrants and Southerners who ing on farms. In 1944, Victory Gardens supplied 42 percent of the came in search of work at the auto factories brought the tradition of nation’s vegetable supply. The Detroit effort included a rooftop gar- gardening with them. This came in handy during World War I when den with raised beds atop the Crowley department store. food shortages led to recruiting high school students and women to Gardening was an important food resource in American cities work on farms outside the city. from about 1918 until the end of World War II. This is a crucial War Gardens were also promoted as part of an effort to get reminder that there is no guarantee of food security in any era. It also households to grow more of their own food so that produce from underscores that people will, and have a right to, take food produc- farms could be sent overseas. Farming inside cities was considered tion into their own hands patriotic, and in some cases golf courses were plowed under for agriculture. A decade later, Depression Gardens represented another Farming Revival effort by people to feed themselves during tough economic times. After World War II gardening in Detroit became less popular and There were also work-relief gardens that supplied work for the the economic boom made growing less necessary to make ends unemployed. The food they grew was donated to hospitals and meet. Gardening for food didn’t start to pick up again until the 1970s. charities. During the Great Depression, Pingree’s daughter resur- As the city’s population fell, then-Mayor Coleman Young, noting that rected her father’s idea and helped create thrift gardens similar to many residents came from southern states, suggested farming as a those her father championed in the 1890s. They consisted of 2,700 solution to the vacant land in the city. Young fostered the Farm-A- plots on 300 acres of land inside Detroit where families grew food to Lot program with the city providing land, seeds, and tools to the new help save money. gardeners. About the same time, in 1973, William Mills started a 4-H During World War II, Victory Gardens were again used to support Community Center where young people could develop leadership the war effort. They were part of a larger Food Fights for Freedom skills through gardening as a part of the Michigan State University

16 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture Below: A Farm-A-Lot community garden in the late 1990s, a program fostered by Mayor Coleman Young in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Gerald Hairston, right, worked with elders and youth to reclaim neighborhoods by turning vacant land into sites for food production. Photos courtesy of Jason FliggerPhotos courtesy

Extension Service, the only 4-H Center of its kind in Hairston was a “giant,” who founded in 1997, in north Detroit with a the country. reclaimed neighborhoods focus on youth involvement. That same In 1977, the federal Urban Gardening Program, “with gentle actions, using year, Brother Rick Samyn started a garden the idea of Rep. Fred Richmond (D-NY), administered the gardens as catalysts, to help fulfill the mission of the Capuchin by the USDA, went into effect in 16 cities across the Soup Kitchen, which is to feed the hungry United States, including Detroit. The purpose was to bringing elders and youth and take care of the poor. The Soup educate and encourage low income city dwellers to together to share ideas Kitchen’s Earthworks Urban Farm became grow, preserve, and use fresh vegetables. and chasing away drug one of the most advanced and sophisti- customers by storing piles cated growing operations in Detroit, and Transforming Vacant Spaces to of horse manure for fertil- the only certified organic farm. Grow Food izers at the dealer’s door.” In the 1980s, the Gardening Angels, steered by Gardening Coalitions — Michelle Brown, Gerald Hairston and other elders with southern roots, While popular and successful, Farm-A- Michigan Citizen, 2001 took up the challenge to turn vacant lots, school Lot was phased out in the early 2000s due land, and playgrounds over to food production. 3 to budget constraints. This was a threat to Michelle Brown wrote in the Michigan Citizen that Hairston was a the vitality of the gardening movement that had grown in the city. “giant,” who reclaimed neighborhoods “with gentle actions, using The Greening of Detroit, the Detroit Agriculture Network, Earthworks the gardens as catalysts, bringing elders and youth together to share ideas and chasing away drug customers by storing piles of horse manure for fertilizers at the dealer’s door.” In 1992, Detroit Summer, a project initiated at Detroit’s Boggs Center, brought young people together with the Gardening Angels to plant community gardens. As Grace Lee Boggs wrote later in The Nation magazine, gardening “reduces neighborhood blight, recon-

nects children and adults, and provides a community base for of Jason FliggerPhoto courtesy economic development.” Dr. Harrison Gardner has also been a prime mover in urban gardening, founding the Foundation for Agriculture Resources in Michi- gan, known as F.A.R.M. It was an effort to connect urban gardeners with rural communities through their understanding of the need for agriculture and how it affects day-to-day life. One of the urban gardens that grew from his effort has been John Gruchala’s FARM, Youth from F.A.R.M. selling organic vegetables, late 1990s.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 17 Detroit agriculture is ﬂourishing. Family, community, school and market gardens produce tons of vegetables each year. There is also a thriving beekeeping community, and some farmers have gone so far as to raise chickens, rabbits, and goats. Others are putting together business plans for ﬁsh farms … @

Left: Children help harvest produce and use ﬂowers to tickle Brother Rick Samyn (center), who started the garden in 1997 to help fulﬁll the mission of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen to feed the hungry and take care of the poor. Photo: of Brightmoor Community Garden Courtesy Photo: JimWestPhoto.com

Right, top: Chickens and other farm animals could be an important part of agriculture in the city. RIght: A volunteer works by fruit trees at Romanowski Farm Park, one of the model market gardens operated by The Greening of Detroit.

Urban Farm/Capuchin Soup Kitchen, and the Michigan State University Extension came together to form the Garden Resource Program Collaborative (GRPC). Photo: JimWestPhoto.com “God forbid, if you were willing to put in all the hard work and if you had the skill to become somewhat self-suﬃ- cient with food needs and you can’t meet those basic needs because you don’t have a few dollars extra in your pocket to buy those things or the ability to get out to the suburbs to try to locate them and get them back to the city,” says Ashley Atkinson, Director of Urban Agriculture and Openspace for and help coordinate cluster events such as shared work days, meet- The Greening of Detroit. Atkinson was an instrumental activist in ings, and summer tours. GRP members that participate in their forming the GRPC. cluster’s activities are eligible to receive additional resources such as Today, in addition to the founding organizations, the Collabora- compost, woodchips, soil tests, and volunteers. tive is made up of hundreds of community based organizations and In addition to the coordinating the work of the Garden Resource residents. Participants in the Garden Resource Program (GRP) receive Program collaborative, The Greening of Detroit’s Urban Agriculture seeds and Detroit-grown transplants and become part of the grow- and Openspace Department hosts educational opportunities for all ing network of urban gardeners, farmers, and advocates in Detroit. ages, supports new garden development with services ranging from Connections between growers are fostered through GRP-supported garden design and construction, to community outreach and neighborhood cluster groups. Each cluster has a team of cluster lead- engagement. It also provides comprehensive training programs, and ers, made of community residents, who manage the cluster tool bank helps coordinate a farmers’ market cooperative.

18 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture B While gardens and the skills to make them successful are one aspect of the urban agriculture movement, social justice is another. In 2006 a group of African-American food activists founded the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), dedicated to food Photo courtesy of D-TownPhoto courtesy security and food justice.

Top: Malik Yakini, Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Net- work, builds garden beds at D-Town Farm. He works closely with Dr. Kami Pothukuchi, right, a nationally recognized food policy expert and a Wayne State University professor, who started the WSU Farmers’ Market and other food oriented programs at the university.

The Greening of Detroit currently operates three model market gardens: • Romanowski Farm Park is a half-acre farm in a southwest Detroit city park; • Plum Street Market Garden is a partnership with MGM Grand Casino and hosts two Photo: Barbara Bareﬁeld greenhouses and one-third-acre outdoor bed production; • Detroit Market Garden is 2.5 acre site located in the Eastern Market District and is home to a greenhouse, three moveable hoop houses, and a fruit orchard. and now operates on seven acres of land in the city’s River Rouge These three sites serve as learning grounds for youth and adult Park. In addition to food, D-Town Farm is about self-suﬃciency and apprentices, host education classes, produce food for farmers’ an ownership stake for African-Americans in Detroit’s food system. markets and wholesale clients, and serve as models for appropri- The DBCFSN worked with the Detroit City Council’s Neighbor- ately-scaled urban agriculture in Detroit. hood and Community Service Standing Committee, chaired by Councilmember JoAnn Watson, and with Dr. Kami Pothukuchi, a Food Security and Food Justice nationally recognized food policy expert and a Wayne State Univer- While gardens and the skills to make them successful are one sity (WSU) professor, to create city food security policies that support aspect of the urban agriculture movement, social justice is another. urban agriculture. One result of that collaboration was the creation In 2006 a group of African-American food activists founded the of the Detroit Food Policy Council in 2008. During a politically con- Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), dedi- tentious era of Detroit political history, City Council found the issue cated to food security and food justice. Their core program is D-Town compelling enough to create the DFPC as part of its Food Security Farm, which began as a quarter-acre plot in an urban neighborhood Policy in a unanimous vote.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 19 d

According to MSU’s Kathryn Colasanti, using intensive growing methods and

extending the growing Photo: Detroit of Northwest Farmers Courtesy Market season with greenhouses, nearly 76 percent of vegetables and 42 percent of fruits consumed in the city could be supplied from as little as 2,086 acres of land — about one-sixth of what is available. Photo courtesy of GenesisHOPE Photo courtesy

Youth involvement is an essential component

at the gardens of GenesisHOPE (above), of D-TownPhoto courtesy Farm Brightmoor (top right) and D-Town (right).

Detroit agriculture is flourishing. Family, community, school, and market gardens produce tons of vegetables each year. There is also a thriving beekeeping community, and some farmers have gone so far as to raise chickens, rabbits, and goats. Others are putting together business plans for the capacity to feed itself in addition to plenty of space for other fish farms similar to those developed by Growing Power in kinds of development. Milwaukee. “It’s bigger than just seeing people growing food,” says Renee The capacity for production is here with 20 square miles (12,800 Wallace, director of community based food systems for Genesis acres) of available vacant space in Detroit. Researchers at Michigan HOPE Community Development Corporation. “What really resonates State University (MSU) have reported that Detroit has the land for me is that food is critical to so many aspects of our life, our sur- capacity to fulfill most of the produce needs of its population. vival. It impacts the quality of our life. When you eat well you function According to MSU’s Kathryn Colasanti, using intensive growing well; when you eat well you are healthy.” methods and extending the growing season with greenhouses, nearly 76 percent of vegetables and 42 percent of fruits consumed Youth Movement in the city could be supplied from as little as 2,086 acres of land — Detroit gardeners are focused on creating a sustainable system. about one-sixth of what is available. That means Detroit easily has One aspect of that sustainability is teaching young people how to

20 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture `

Detroit gardeners are focused on creating a sustainable system. One aspect of that sustainability Photos at left: Courtesy of Brightmoor Community GardenPhotos Courtesy at left: is teaching young people how to garden. Passing those skills on to another generation is the best way to ensure that today’s gardening boom stays alive and prospers. Photo: JimWestPhoto.com

Young people in Brightmoor, top and above, learn skills and help build community at the Brightmoor Youth Garden. Right: Youth work composting at the Earth- works Urban Farm. garden. Passing those skills on to another generation is the best way “I might teach a lesson about planting seeds; then we go out and to ensure that today’s gardening boom stays alive and prospers. The do it,” says Curtis of the hands-on program. “I might talk about Greening of Detroit, D-Town Farm, Earthworks Urban Farm, Genesis- composting; then go out and do it. … You have to work hard at it HOPE, and others have youth programs in place. Many of these po- but once you’re good at it, it’s fun. The best thing about it is knowing sitions are paid jobs. During a tough economic recession when there exactly where your food came from and knowing what was put on is little meaningful employment for youths — not to mention work it while it was growing.” that could lead to a career — these are precious opportunities. In 2011, The Greening of Detroit and Neighbors Building Bright- Wakel Curtis, 16, was an intern during the ﬁrst year of the moor, which has sponsored a Youth Garden since 2006, employed 43 GenesisHOPE Youth Growing Detroit Entrepreneur Internship young people to build an edible playscape, treedome park, butterﬂy Program in 2010. In its second year she became a teen assistant and and bird gardens, and a nature trail connecting the neighborhood to repeated that role in the summer of 2012. Eliza Howell Park. Brightmoor boasts at least 24 community and

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 21 F

Agricultural skills that once passed Photo: of Brightmoor Community Garden Courtesy from generation to generation have become scarce. Now that people are relearning how to grow food, working with young people is a natural place to extend the reconnection with gardening. Knowledge about food creates power in the food system. Empowering youth with knowledge sustains that system with power for the future. Photo: Kami Pothukuchi,Photo: Kami SEED Wayne, Wayne State University Above: The Brightmoor neighborhood boasts no fewer than 24 community gardens, along with a few market gardens, numerous family gardens, orchards, a native planting site, and an edible playscape.

market gardens in addition to numerous family gardens and a couple of orchards. In addition, young people who work in Brightmoor’s Youth Garden take turns selling their produce at the Northwest Detroit Farmers’ Market, one of several new outlets developing around town. Over at D-Town, Andrew Hill, 14, has been learning how to plant seeds and seedlings. “It’s really cool just to see how it all comes together,” he says. “It feels good to know that we have the opportunity to grow our own food and eat it. You know the process of the food.” Greg Willerer eats a chemical-free, “Grown in Detroit” salad, grown at his Although Hill started working at D-Town with his parents, the Brother Nature Farm, one of the few proﬁtable farms in Detroit. He be- DBCFSN runs a Food Warriors youth development program for lieves that with appropriate changes in the law, urban agriculture could seven- and eight-year-old students at Nsoroma Institute and generate thousands of jobs and a greatly increased tax base for the city. Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology. Hanifa Adjuman, education and outreach director for the DBCFSN, coordinates the Legal Issues program at those charter schools. As part of the program, the Food The food production capacity of Detroit is real. The land is here, Warriors make visits to D-Town. people are becoming more and more knowledgeable about agricul- “I work with the children in gardening,” says Adjuman. “Our ture, and many people are willing to work at it. Farming has grown emphasis is on healthy eating, nutrition and working with parents in organically in the neighborhoods, but in order for this to develop helping them to understand the importance of good nutrition in further, Detroit land use and farming regulations need to be estab- addition to physical activity.” lished. It also requires state legislation to amend the Right to Farm Educating youth about nutrition and growing food is one of the Act of 1981, and a city land use policy to equitably regulate the re- most important aspects of the urban gardening movement. During sults of a movement that has grown naturally throughout our neigh- the past century of urban living many people have become discon- borhoods. nected from knowledge about farming. Agricultural skills that once “There are a lot of people doing it in this legal gray area,” says Greg passed from generation to generation have become scarce. Now that Willerer of Brother Nature farm. “Imagine if it were legal. You could people are relearning how to grow food, working with young people have hook ups with the local hardware stores, hook up into the local is a natural place to extend the reconnection with gardening. economy. There are a lot of market gardeners. Imagine if the city Knowledge about food creates power in the food system. could make it easier for us to secure land. It will feed into the local Empowering youth with knowledge sustains that system with power economy and set an example. Farming is part of what could be done for the future. with all this land. The next thing you know you have 5,000 new

22 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture “What we’re trying to do is provide some sense of hope and stability in the neighborhood,” says Billie Hickey. “For us this is Photo: of Brightmoor Community Garden Courtesy really a wonderful place to live. It’s not vacant land; it’s land we can share, with lots of pocket parks, playgrounds for kids, an exercise station for adults, and one house has been turned into a stage.” \ Photo: Kami Pothukuchi,Photo: Kami SEED Wayne, Wayne State University

Above: Bill and BIllie Hickey with neighborhood children at one of the numerous family and community gardens in their Brightmoor community. Right: Wayne State University students grow produce at their greenhouse.

entrepreneurs in the city who are going to pay taxes. This is not year round. The hoop going to hurt anybody, especially if we are growing food. It should house represents seri- be a win, win for everyone.” ous ambition in gar- The City Planning Commission’s Urban Agriculture Work Group dening, and as they (UAW) has been developing an urban agriculture ordinance in pop up on the Detroit landscape, they are a testament to Detroiters’ cooperation with the DFPC. When this is adopted by City Council, serious ambitions about growing food. gardeners will know what is acceptable and what is legal in the city. This will enable entrepreneurs to create the infrastructure of food There are four diﬀerent types of gardens in Detroit: processing and marketing, develop a supply system, and promote Family Garden: These gardens are where people in a residence the healing of self-empowerment and proﬁt-making. use the yard or an adjacent lot to plant vegetables intended for use in the home. Thousands of these gardens thrive across the city. Detroit Gardens Community Garden: These gardens are tended by groups of There are more than 1,350 community gardens registered with neighbors who share the harvest. In addition to the physical health the Detroit Agriculture Network, and thousands more family, school generated by gardening activities and the wealth of the harvest, and church gardens in the city. While those numbers show how gar- community gardens help organize communities through communi- dening has grown in the city, it may be the hoop house that repre- cation and shared goals. Generally, community gardens involve a sents how gardening is transforming Detroit. It’s become almost higher order of organization and gardening knowledge. Feedom commonplace to encounter hoop houses dotting the city land- Freedom Growers is an example of a community garden. scape. These half-circle frames covered by plastic cost less than School Garden: These gardens are woven into the curriculum at traditional greenhouses and are easier to build. To the casual schools to teach nutrition and other skills to students. Detroit Wal- observer, the hoop house is a visual testament to the robust growth dorf School has such a garden in the Indian Village community. In of gardening in Detroit. To the gardening activist hoop houses are a spring 2012, Detroit Public Schools began an ambitious project of sign of the city’s more developed gardens. They help extend the school gardens throughout the city. growing season by allowing gardeners to start growing earlier in the Market garden: A market garden is a production-focused garden spring and keep growing into the early winter. Some gardeners using or farm. Brother Nature in the Briggs neighborhood and Rising these structures are able to grow hardy, winter crops almost all Pheasant Farm on the east side are market gardens.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 23 “As city folks who didn’t grow up on farms, you have these romantic of D-TownPhotos courtesy Farm notions about it. … The reality of it is, it’s hard, hard work.” —Malik Yakini Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

It’s not unusual for community gardeners to sell some produce in order to cover costs such as organic fertilizers, tools and watering systems. Some school and church gardens sell as part of youth education and entrepreneurial programs. Grown in Detroit, a cooperative of market gardeners, sells produce at farmers’ markets throughout the city.

Composting Organic gardeners depend on good healthy soil, which makes composting very important. Compost is the life blood of gardening Volunteers build a hoop house at D-Town Farm. as people reclaim the land for growing after a century of industrial mistreatment. Many gardeners in the city make their own compost unteers. However, D-Town is working and growing closer to its goal by mixing such materials as yard and kitchen waste, and allowing it of self-sufficiency. to break down into a nutrient-rich soil. Composting involves the right There is a 1.5-acre plot dedicated to vegetables, a 150-square- mix of ingredients in order to create the proper nutrients and ade- foot garlic plot, a small apple orchard tended by Can-Did Revolution quate heat to aid in the quick breakdown of materials. Sometimes (a new family applesauce company), 34 three-by-twelve foot beds compost is made with the aid of worms to create the soil. of salad greens inside a 30-by-96 foot hoop house, and an area Although most community and market gardens in the city are dedicated to medicinal herbs such as purslane, burdock, white not certified organic, many of them use compost instead of synthetic thistle, and red raspberry. fertilizers. Organic gardeners use natural substances to ward off pests Yakini started gardening as an outgrowth of his black empower- rather than chemical insecticides. ment philosophy and African centered education at Nsoroma Institute, which he founded in 1989 and was principal of until 2011. Some of Detroit’s Gardens: He’s learned a lot himself since delving into gardening. D-Town Farm “I’m still very much grounded in the belief that black people need On spring weekends a couple of dozen volunteers prepare beds, to strive for as much self reliance as we can in every part of our lives,” pile wood chips into pathways around the garden, open up the hoop he says. “What has changed is I have much more practical knowledge houses to take advantage of the warm weather, and other tasks to of what it takes to do food production on a large scale. get ready for the season’s planting. D-Town runs on volunteer power “As city folks who didn’t grow up on farms, you have these roman- — Malik Yakini, Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community tic notions about it. Things sound really good in workshops and Food Security Network, says there are usually 20 to 30 volunteers per PowerPoint presentations. The reality of it is, it’s hard, hard work. I week in the spring and early summer. The number falls off once the learned how intense the work is. It’s difficult to keep people engaged heat of July hits but folks come around for the annual Harvest Festival for that period of time in work that is that intense, particularly when in the fall to share in the bounty produced. D-Town has one em- you’re not able to pay folks.” ployee, a farm manager, and a contractor to manage compost. Yakini has done the hard work and learned how to grow food, Currently the farm does not turn a profit and is dependent on vol- manage insects and other pests — such as possums, groundhogs

24 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture Photo courtesy of D-TownPhoto courtesy Farm Photo courtesy of BrotherPhoto Nature courtesy Farm

Above: Working with bees at D-Town Farm. Greg Willerer, right, and his wife Olivia Hubert’s Brother Nature Farm has found a profitable niche selling exotic greens to restaurants and markets. With the help of their hoop house, they are able to produce nine months out of the year. and raccoons. D-Town workers capture the animals in humane traps It’s one of the few profitable gardens in Detroit because they have and relocate them away from the farm. In D-Town’s first year in found a niche in growing exotic greens to sell at restaurants and mar- Rouge Park workers put in 750 tomato plants but harvested only kets. With the help of a hoop house they get production nine months about five pounds of tomatoes because deer ate most of the crop. A out of the year. deer fence solved that problem. “We harvest about 150 pounds a week, nine months out of the Yakini can now explain soil science, irrigation, crop rotation, and year,” says Willerer. “Every year is different. We are paying taxes; we how to properly harvest various crops and prepare them for sale. are helping the city. When I was at WSU back in 1989, we had a house D-Town is a regional outreach center for Growing Power, a national where we squatted and we had a huge garden. My mom always had leader in urban farming based in Milwaukee. Growing Power founder a kitchen garden; my wife has always had a garden. When you see Will Allen visited the site a couple of years ago and suggested the world changing around you, the way employers are treating D-Town focus on building up its compost production. Since then, workers, costs have gone up, and it just makes sense. I’ve saved a D-Town has worked with Forgotten Harvest, a hunger relief organi- whole lot of money in my personal budget. Why wouldn’t we start zation, to compost its excess food. It also gets wood chips from the growing our own food commercially?” Wayne County Forestry Department. Put it all together with some Although he no longer composts on the same site, Greg’s crew cardboard and yard waste, and you have compost — the stuff good has built up the space so the land is about two feet higher than street soil is made of. level. Good new organic soil is on top of the old surface that was “We’re hoping that this year we will produce enough compost for mostly clay and grass with an assortment of rubble. Willerer and our own farm, and we’re looking for it to be a source of revenue in business partner Passion Murray started Detroit Dirt, a commercial the future,” says Yakini. “Not only to produce enough compost for our composting operation on about an acre of land near the Ambassa- own use but enough to sell to other local growers, and to produce dor Bridge. Their materials include spent grain from beer making. things like compost tea that you can spray on plants.” “Motor City Brewing Works will give its waste away to people who One of the 2012 goals is to actually weigh harvested produce and are gardening,” says Greg, “It really helps to heat up your pile and add it up so DBCFSN members can get a handle on where produc- helps choke out the weeds. It’s just barley and wheat. … We also tion is in order to make business plans. want to address environmental justice, the way garbage gets processed in the city. It’s important to show people how we can Brother Nature Farm reprocess waste and turn that into a positive thing.” Brother Nature is a market garden on eight lots (about two-thirds of an acre) near Temple Street and Rosa Parks Blvd. Three full time Feedom Freedom Growers workers and an intern tend the crops there. Greg Willerer and his Feedom Freedom Growers cultivates a community garden on wife, Olivia Hubert, have been running it commercially since 2006. Detroit’s far east side. They have four lots and a small hoop house on

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 25 their main site, but they’re trying to acquire an even bigger lot across the street that is legally tied up so they can’t grow there yet. The lots are adjacent to the home of Myrtle and Wayne Curtis the prime movers of the group. They started gardening in 2009. Be- fore that, Myrtle says, they would cut the Photos: of Feedom Courtesy Freedom Growers grass that grew as tall as her head, so why not grow something useful on the lots? In the early 1970s, Wayne was involved in the Black Panther free breakfast program and never abandoned the principle of feeding people as part of seeking social justice. The operative focus of Feedom Freedom Grow- ers is: Grow a garden, feed a community. “Our work is transformative by nature,” says Myrtle, “We don’t want to represent abandoned buildings. We’re not here for profit. We garden as a revolutionary act of love for ourselves and others.” That love has helped grow lovely eggplants, watermelon, squash, peppers, greens, sugar snap peas, parsley, lettuce and more. Wayne took training as a beekeeper and now a bee hive at the back of a lot represents a new endeavor for the community garden. The compost pile sits one lot over. On another lot sits a hoop house that allows them to grow spinach and arugula most of the year. And they’ve taken a cue from D-Town to celebrate with a harvest festival each year. Although the neighborhood is mostly African-American, it is multi-ethnic. They sell eggplants and garlic to the local Krishna group. The community-building aspect of their work is Wayne and Myrtle Curtis and the Feedom Freedom Growers cultivate a just as important as the food. The growers have a core of five community garden on Detroit’s far east side. Their operative focus is: committed members and numerous neighbors who help when Grow a garden, feed a community. they can. The whole thing grew out of discussions at the Boggs Center about re-imagining what you can do in your community. trail going into Eliza Howell Park. “We’re not afraid of each other,” says Myrtle. “This is a safe space.” Bill and Billie Hickey moved into Brightmoor from the University District, a neighborhood that forms a cluster of the city’s most finan- Brightmoor cially secure neighborhoods. The Hickeys had worked in the com- The Brightmoor community is one of the best examples of how a munity garden near Gesu Church but they saw that Brightmoor had neighborhood can pull itself together out of some of the worst con- so much more open space available for gardening, they decided to ditions. Brightmoor is a neighborhood that the city seems to have move. Now they have a little bungalow with a community garden forgotten. In fact, the city should look at Brightmoor as an example on the two lots next to their home. of the good that could happen when citizens are engaged in working “We have a real interest in food justice” says Billie, “We’re inter- in their own community. And a lot of what’s happening is started by ested in making food available to everyone and being connected an organization called Neighbors Building Brightmoor. better with people in the neighborhood. There’s a real sense of Colorful signage painted by neighbors is a trademark of the urgency to show the city what can be done and what is possible. … neighborhood — an area bordered by Fenkell, Lahser, and Lyndon It’s been an amazing experience. There’s a small nonprofit that covers Streets, and Eliza Howell Park and the Rouge River. There are at least 22 blocks. It’s grown from about six people to about 50 people who two dozen community gardens, along with a few market gardens, say I want my block to be clean and have things happening on it too. family gardens, orchards, a native planting site, and an edible The commons has really become a reality in our neighborhood. playscape. There’s even a nod to history with a new incarnation of There are tool banks in some garages; people have things they’re Pingree’s Potato Patch. There are also several small pocket parks, a always sharing with each other.” performance stage created from an abandoned house, and a nature The Hickeys grow about 40 varieties of vegetables and fruit,

26 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture Left: A hoop house at Earthworks Urban Farm. Program manager Patrick Crouch (below, left) reports they harvested 14,000 pounds of produce in 2011. Most of it went to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. Photo courtesy of Earthworks Urban Farm Urban of Earthworks Photo courtesy Photo courtesy of Earthworks Urban Farm Urban of Earthworks Photo courtesy

Photo: of Brightmoor Community Garden Courtesy groceries. Still the vibrant blocks seem to outnumber the bad areas. But there is a reason why some areas are nicer than others. “No street gets a cleanup unless a neighbor sponsors it,” says Riet Schumack, who has one of the biggest gardens in Brightmoor. “There’s no block cleanup until a person from there comes to a meet- ing or contacts us. Once they sponsor a project it becomes their baby. We don’t do things for you; we do things with you.” The Schumacks moved to Brightmoor from Rosedale Park, a neighborhood just to the north where City Council members and politicians reside. Riet claims she can feed a family of six for eight months just on what she has growing. The Schumacks own three Riet Schumack, left, claims she can feed a family of six for eight months lots that are more than twice as deep as the typical 115-feet lot just on what she has growing on her three lots in Brightmoor. She moved here to be part of the earthy neighborhood and food community because the Rouge River is behind it. Rosedale Park is nothing like that is partly centered around Leland Baptist Church and St. Christine’s Brightmoor, but Schumack wanted to be part of the earthy neigh- Soup Kitchen and Pantry, sponsored by Christ the King Catholic Church. borhood where you literally dig your hands into the soil and become part of the food community that is partly centered around Leland although not a lot of any one thing. They don’t weigh how much Baptist Church and St. Christine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry, spon- produce they grow, but simply share it with neighbors who work in sored by Christ the King Catholic Church. the garden. “What we’re trying to do is provide some sense of hope and sta- Earthworks Urban Farm bility in the neighborhood,” says Hickey. “For us this is really a won- Most Detroiters know of the good work the Capuchin Soup Kitchen derful place to live. It’s not vacant land; it’s land we can share, with has done feeding people for decades. The folks there took it to another lots of pocket parks, playgrounds for kids, an exercise station for level when they got into growing food in 1997. Earthworks Urban adults, and one house has been turned into a stage.” Farm’s 2.5 acres are spread across 21 non-contiguous lots. Program Many of the small wood frame houses in the area were built manager Patrick Crouch reports they harvested 14,000 pounds of cheaply to house auto workers coming to town during the mid-1900s. produce in 2011. Most of it went to the soup kitchen. They also diverted Now the neighborhood is a mix of vibrant, well-kept blocks and those 350,000 pounds of compostable material from the waste stream — with houses that are falling apart and look ready for demolition. One that included about 1,000 pounds of spent grain from a brewery in three residences has an automobile, making it diﬃcult to shop for each week. Reclaiming the soil is part of the job in urban gardening.

Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture 27 “Most of these soils will all heal themselves, just not in a time sophisticated growing operations. frame that we would like,” says Crouch. “What most of us really desire In the past decade organizations such as The Greening of Detroit, is fast, cheap, and easy. Nature is slow, methodical, and unyielding.” the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and the Detroit Maybe it’s a case of take care of the land and the land will take Food Policy Council have taken steps to integrate gardening with care of you. That’s certainly the case when it comes to gardening, and local economic development, feeding the hungry, education, and when it comes to community relations. social justice efforts. The DFPC has worked with the Detroit City “We try to be good neighbors,” says Crouch, “It’s not everybody’s Council in developing land-use legislation for the city that will allow dream to have a garden next door, but nobody’s building new urban gardening to thrive. The DFPC has also worked with Eastern houses around here.” Market Corporation to develop market locations to improve access Earthworks is a certified organic farm and produces transplants to fresh, nutritional food, and to support development of a local food for use by other gardeners. Certified organic means the produce has system that allows and encourages Detroiters to create entrepre- been grown by strict state standards (no chemical pesticides or neurial opportunities in food production, processing, preparation, fertilizers, sewage sludge or genetically modified organisms) and cooking, and sales. that the land has been worked in this manner for at least three con- It is not far-fetched to believe that gardens and small farms can secutive years. It has two well-developed youth programs that cover make a difference in the food supply for big cities. Researchers Jerry ages 5 through 17. Young people go from learning about food to Kaufman and Martin Bailkey reported in 2000 that 25 percent of the growing it to selling it in a holistic food system. It also has a flexible world’s food production comes from inside cities. volunteer program in which folks can drop in and work for very short More than 200 urban gardens in Havana, Cuba, produce 300,000 periods of time, which is unusual for volunteer programs. If you have tons of food each year, almost all of the city’s vegetable supply. It is 20 minutes they’ll accept that. Earthworks’ ultimate goal is a just and neither unusual, nor unproductive, to grow food in cities. Programs beautiful food system for all. in Mumbai, India; Beijing, China; Perth, Australia, and elsewhere have “I think of food as medicine,” says Crouch. sprung up to grow food and feed people. Across the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, urban Conclusion growers have created a movement that has literally taken root. Grow- If food is medicine, then growing food is medicine for a Detroit ing food in cities has been taking place for as long as there have been suffering from the ills of poverty, racism, and postindustrial economic cities. It is only in recent history that the practice declined — foundering. Detroiters have always turned to growing food during although gardeners in Detroit and around the world have begun tough economic times — from the 1890s with Pingree’s Potato turning urban land back to producing food. Patches, Victory Gardens during wartime and Depression Gardens Gardening is a part of community and economic development. It during the Great Depression. Mayor Coleman Young Jr. promoted promotes education about food and nutrition, improves the environ- Farm-A-Lot as more and more land in the city was left vacant due to ment, improves health, and sustains neighborhoods. As Detroit moves suburban flight. forward in remaking itself, the Detroit Food Policy Council stands com- In the 1980s the Gardening Angels and others took up the cause mitted to its mission of “nurturing the development and maintenance of growing food and were joined in the 1990s by such efforts as of a sustainable, localized food system and a food- secure city of Detroit Detroit Summer, the Foundation for Agriculture Resources in Michi- in which all of its residents are hunger-free, healthy and benefit gan, and Earthworks Urban Farm began developing more skillful and economically from the food system that impacts their lives.” Detroit Food System Annual Report Credits Detroit Food Policy Council Coordinator: Cheryl A. Simon Research and Writing: Larry Gabriel Graphic Design and Cover Art Photo: Barbara Barefield, Barefield DesignWorks Detroit Report Committee NeferRa Barber Adrienne Edmonson Roxanne Moore Cheryl Simon Pam Weinstein Allison Burket, Congressional Hunger Anne Ginn Kami Pothukuchi Willie Spivey Betti Wiggins Center, Bill Emerson Fellow , 2011-2012 Myra Lee Fiona Ruddy Michaela Tarr Monica White Kibibi Blount Dorn Benjamin McShane-Jewell Kadiri Sennefer Myrtle Thompson Curtis Malik Yakini Thank you to the following photographers and organizations for photos: Barbara Barefield; Brightmoor Community Garden; Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library; D-Town Farm; DTE Energy Garden; Earthworks Urban Farm; Jason Fligger; GenesisHOPE; Alison Heeres; Clarence Johnson Productions; Kami Pothukuchi, SEED Wayne, Wayne State University; Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University; Pam Weinstein, Northwest Detroit Farmers’ Market and Grandmont Rosedale Community Garden; Jim West, jimwestphoto.com

28 Detroit Food System 2011-12 Report | Urban Agriculture Schaefer Hwy Schaefer

Mound Rd Lahser Rd

Schoenherr St E Outer Dr

John R St R John Conant St

Ryan Rd Hoover St W 7 Mile Rd W 7 Mile Rd E 7 Mile Rd E 7 Mile Rd Kelly Rd Hayes St Moross Rd HIGHLAND PARK Morang Dr W Outer Dr ve Gunston St W McNichols Rd W McNichols Rd FARMERS MKT Conner St

Lahser Rd Oakland St E Davison St Greenfield Rd NW DETROIT WINDMILL MARKET Harper A Evergreen Rd ve FARMERS MKT HAMTRAMCK E Outer Dr Fenkell St Chandler Park Dr OAKLAND AVE Caniff St Lynch Rd Cadieux Rd FARMERS MKT Mack A Grinnell St Ave FARMERS MKT Conner St Harper

EASTSIDEarren Ave W Davison W E W

Wyoming St

Livernois oodward Schoolcraft Schoolcraft St Oakland St FARMERS MKT

Chalmers St

E Grand Blvd Saint Jean St

Harper Ave Linwood St Mount Elliott St

Burt Rd Alter Rd A ve Schaefer Hwy

ve ISLANDVIEWAve W Outer Dr Plymouth Rd Dexter A

Clairmount St SOWING SEEDS PEACHES & McDougall St FARMERSE Forest MKT

GROWING FUTURES Chene St W Chicago St Dequindre GrandGREENS River A STORE Van Dyke St ve W Outer Dr Evergreen A ve W Grand Blvd Chrysler Dr Joy Rd Joy Rd ve Mack A Kercheval St Oakman Blvd ve EASTERN MARKET Tireman St Trumbull St ve

WSU FARMERS MKT ernor Hwy E V E Jefferson A W Warren Ave

Ave W

yoming St 3rd St

W Grand Blvd McGraw St E Jefferson

Lonyo St

E Larned St Bagley St

DIX St Dragoon St W Fort St

ernor Hwy W V

ve Dearborn St A

W Jefferson S DIX St

Visger St 2012 MARKET MAP

W Outer Dr

Buy Local! Eat Fresh! Be Healthy!

Detroiters now have a new way to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, right in their own neighborhoods — through Detroit Community Markets (DCM). These community-based fresh food outlets include farmers’ markets, farm stands, mobile trucks, and food box programs. All of them accept the Bridge card. To top it oﬀ, almost all DCM members participate in the Double Up Food Bucks program, which matches your Bridge card purchase dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of $20 per visit, with FREE Double Up tokens good for the purchase of Michigan-grown fruits and vegetables — that’s literally doubling your money! DETROIT COMMUNITY MARKETS Healthy, aﬀordable food is what Detroit residents need. The DCM network gives shoppers across the city the chance to buy fresh, locally grown and locally produced food. This grassroots network is united as Detroit Community Markets. Our goals are increasing access to healthy foods, improving neighborhoods, supporting local growers and entrepreneurs, and creating public spaces where residents can come together. Read more: www.detroitmarkets.org DETROIT FOOD POLICY COUNCIL 2934 Russell Street Detroit, Michigan 48207 313.833.0396 [email protected] www.detroitfoodpolicycouncil.net