Keep Growing Detroit

In the 20th century, Detroit was considered an example for technological advancement thanks to the automobile industry. However, due to economic decline, the city is no longer a standard for modernization and is currently an example of urban decay.[3] Detroit’s decline is well documented: the city entered a recession prior to the U.S. financial crisis of 2008, posting deficits of up to $150 million dollars annually starting in 2005.[4] This debt has resulted in increased crime and poverty rates, and a rapidly decreasing population due to white flight.[5] Detroit is still in crisis today.

Detroit has also been the birthplace of many cultural movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement. People of color in Detroit experience low access to food and health care, and low access to employment and education.[6] Pertaining solely to food, communities of people of color that live in food deserts are vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and diabetes. A lack of health care increases these risks.[6] There are many organizations and initiatives that aim to address these issues by working towards a food sovereign Detroit.

Detroit’s urban agriculture initiatives are well established compared to others in the United States.[3] Because of the need for reliable and healthy food sources, Detroit shows potential for the expansion of urban agriculture from a neighborhood level to a city level.[7]

Many urban gardens increase segregation by displacing people of color; however, the urban agriculture initiative in Detroit is unique because many of the urban farms are headed by people of color. Keep Growing Detroit is directly involved by promoting agricultural education and increasing access to agricultural resources to communities of color.[8]

Detroit has been listed under the Food Access Research Atlas (FARA) as a low income and low food access region.[9] Detroit is considered a food desert because of the lack of access to fresh produce and grocery stores, with many residents relying on fast food chains, liquor stores, and corner stores to feed themselves and their families.[10] Grocery stores began closing in the 1980’s, and Farmer Jack was the last chain grocery store to close in 2007.[10] Some argue that Detroit’s food desert status is no longer an issue; however, Keep Growing Detroit aims to directly address remaining issues of food insecurity.[11][12]

Keep Growing Detroit was founded in 2013 to organize, maintain, and support already existing food programs-the Garden Resource Program and Grown in Detroit, and to ultimately reach more urban farmers. Ashley Atkinson, the co-Director of Keep Growing Detroit, stated in an interview from 2015, “I see [the programs] growing tenfold in order to accommodate hundreds more gardens and residents participating. We really must not slow down in pursuit of our mission of a food sovereign City of Detroit.”.[13]

The Health Fund is one of several organizations that supplies grants to Keep Growing Detroit in support of its initiatives and actions towards community building and food sovereignty.[16] Additional supporters are the Mahindra North American Technical Center, Wayne State University, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services.[17][18][19]

KGD receives funding as a Community Food Project (CFP). The Community Food Projects are funded federally through the U.S. Community Food Security Act of 1996. According to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) CFP’s aim to:

“Meet the food needs of low-income individuals through food distribution, community outreach to assist in participation in Federally assisted nutrition programs, or improving access to food as part of a comprehensive service; Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for the food needs of the communities; Promote comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues; and Meet specific state, local or neighborhood food and agricultural needs…”.[20]

KGD provides agricultural resources for new gardeners and farmers, and opportunities for financial growth through selling produce at various farmers markets.[2]

KGD takes monetary and material donations, and they also sell merchandise. This supplemental funding allows supporters and community members are to contribute financially.[21]

The Garden Resource Program has supported most of the gardens in Detroit, providing necessary tools and education practices for those wishing to benefit from the urban gardens. The program directly provides residents, particularly communities of color, with specific gardening workshops and necessary resources.[13] The program was launched in 2003 by Ashley Atkinson, co-director of Keep Growing Detroit.[14] The program provides means for community members to examine the history of their gardening practices, incorporating their own levels of personal resilience through their work.[13]

Grown in Detroit culminates the food, herbs, and other garden resources that originate from urban gardeners from Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.[24] The initiative provides food to several restaurants around the city, and provides workshops for residents interested in becoming Grown in Detroit gardeners. [24]

Produce for Pantries is one of the subsets of KGD created to address the food desert crisis in Detroit. It is donation based. The donations are then given to pantries in need.[25]

Keep Growing Detroit offers a multitude of educational programs and workshops for all ages. The programs educate locals on the basics of garden maintenance, production, as well as leadership skills to promote the growth of urban gardening practices.[26] The educational programs for KGD are supported by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, an organization that values the attention towards student apprentices involved in KGD. [27]The student apprenticeships aim to provide community instruction and leadership opportunities to youth and young adults in the Detroit area. The educational components of Keep Growing Detroit focus on the ideals and properties of food sovereignty within the city. The programs educate Detroit residents in order to promote practices of self-determination, celebrating urban agriculture as a necessary skill as well as a way of creating community.[2]

Established in 2007, this program specializes in teaching the art of beekeeping for those maintaining community gardens within the city.[26] The program is taught in a 6-part series, educating potential beekeepers in general bee biology and proper control and maintenance of their hives.

KGD offers classes to community members in the area, focusing on educating locals in the basics of gardening and maintaining produce. The classes are advertised online on their website, updated with each season.[28]

Each class is designed to educate members of all ages and levels of experience. The programs cover a broad range of topics, including preservation of gardens, plant growth, and ways to sustainably harvest and eat the products.[28]

KGD offers a paid, 8-week summer work experience, aimed to provide apprenticeship experience to youth ages 14-18 in Detroit.[29] Following their apprenticeship experience, KGD offers the Academic Year Youth Leadership Development Program, which assists students as they move onto adult leadership roles.[29]KGD also offers early childhood programs for children from birth to five years old.[30] The programs incorporate interaction and play amongst families and neighbors in Detroit, in efforts to start building healthy habits from a young age.

KGD provides several initiatives aimed to provide access to healthy diets as well as to encourage communal leadership and decision making skills amongst Detroit residents.[31] Supported by co-founder Ashley Atkinson, leadership workshops are led throughout the organization in order to organize the community in response to the politics of food sovereignty in Detroit.[31] The leadership within KGD connects with other groups in Detroit combatting food sovereignty, in the overall push towards expansion of community gardening within the city.[7]

The Urban Roots Community Garden Leader Training Program is a specific 9-week program geared towards training leaders around Detroit in areas such as horticulture and community organization.[26] The program educates students in horticulture methodology, and prepares graduates to continue on into further leadership roles in their neighborhoods.[26] This program joins the city-wide movement towards food security. A network of urban gardening organizations is educating more residents in areas of leadership in order to increase the growing accumulation and success of produce amongst the vacant lots of Detroit.[32]

The urban agriculture movement taking place in Detroit is heavily influenced by the availability of land in the surrounding area. Access to land is one of the few requirements that can hold citizens back from beginning their journey to food sovereignty. Many Detroit residents took to starting their own gardens in neighboring vacant lots. Gardening in this manner does not provide any long term security for the garden itself, and it could be disrupted by the legal land owners. Keep Growing Detroit is a community leader in helping residents to secure land for their agricultural endeavors.[33] They provide people with the necessary information and methods to go about securing their own land. Keep Growing Detroit`s approach to land security is flexible with various options for a variety of different level enthusiasts. They highlight 4 different ways to go about acquiring land, including oral licensing, written licensing, leasing, and purchasing.[34]

Starting with its inauguration in 2009 by the Detroit City Council, the Detroit Food Policy Council has worked closely with Keep Growing Detroit. The council is involved in monitoring, advising, and implementing decisions concerning food policy in Detroit. These actions include reviewing and updating food security policies, participating in the development of urban agriculture and land security policies, and publishing the Detroit food system report.[35]