Keep Growing Detroit is an organization dedicated to food sovereignty and community engagement in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.Keep Growing Detroit. (2018). Retrieved October, 2018 from, http://detroitagriculture.net/about/ Founded in 2013, the program designs and implements initiatives that promote the practice of urban agriculture as a mode of food justice for underrepresented communities, particularly those who do not have access to healthy food options. The goals of Keep Growing Detroit are to educate and empower community members using urban agricultural practices. Programs such as the Garden Resource Program and Grown in Detroit served as catalysts, laying the foundation for Keep Growing Detroit.
Keep Growing Detroit has over 70 seasonal, high tunnel gardens, and operates out of a central farm located in the Eastern Market District. At the central farm, transplants and seeds are grown and distributed to gardeners in their network, and workshops are hosted for any interested community members. Keep Growing Detroit is responsible for providing these essential garden resources to over 1,550 gardens. The organization aims to combat the prevalent issue of food insecurity that exists within Detroit. By emphasizing community engagement, leadership opportunities, and agricultural education, Keep Growing Detroit enables participants to establish agency over the way they obtain their food.
History Pretext for founding 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.Richtr, J., & Potteiger, M. (2015). Farming as a Tool of urban rebirth? Urban agriculture in Detroit 2015: A Case Study. 7th International Aesop Sustainable Food Planning Conference Proceedings, 463-477. http://www.aesoptorino2015.it/content/download/480/2529/version/1/file/44_T4B_734_richtr_A.pdf The decline of Detroit is well documented: the city entered a recession prior to the Great Recession, posting deficits of up to $150 million annually starting in 2005. This debt has resulted in increased crime and poverty rates, and a rapidly decreasing population due to white flight.
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. 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. There are many organizations and initiatives that aim to address these issues by working towards a food sovereign Detroit.
Urban agriculture Detroit's urban agriculture initiatives are well established compared to others in the United States. 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.
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.McClintock, N., Miewald, C., & McCann, E. (2018). The politics of urban agriculture: Sustainability, governance, and contestation. SAGE Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. https://emccanngeog.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/mcclintock_miewald_mccann_spaces_of_urban_politics_preprint.pdf
Food sovereignty in Detroit Detroit has been listed under the Food Access Research Atlas (FARA) as a low income and low food access region. 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. Grocery stores began closing in the 1980s, and Farmer Jack was the last chain grocery store to close in 2007. 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.Jordan, Jerilyn. Detroit Metro Times. New Report reveals 30,000 Detroiters do not have access to healthy food
Founding 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."Keep Growing Detroit. (2015 June). DFC: A Field Guide Working with Lots, Retrieved December 2018, from dfc-lots.com/local-examples/keep-growing-detroit.
Structure
Keep Growing Detroit was co-founded by Ashley Atkinson in 2013.(2018). “Our Staff.” Keep Growing Detroit http://detroitagriculture.net/about/our-staff/ The organization is divided into subsets with their own distinct initiatives. The base of Keep Growing Detroit is located on 1850 Erskine. The Garden Resource Program is a KGD initiative that provides resources to local residents for creating and maintaining gardens, even assisting in growing plant cuttings for transplantation. The transplants are given to residents to use for their gardens. Other programs sponsored by Keep Growing Detroit include: Grown in Detroit, Produce for Pantries, Education Series, Urban Roots, Sweet on Detroit, Detroit Farm Train, Youth Programs, and Early Childhood Programs.(2018)."Our Work". Keep Growing Detroit. http://detroitagriculture.net/our-work/ Grown in Detroit, which has a CSA and a food stand in the Eastern Market farmers market, aims to connect residents with locally grown produce, that is grown without the use of GmOs or pesticides.
Funding
Grants 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. Additional supporters are the Mahindra North American Technical Center, Wayne State University, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services.Detroit urban agriculture gets Mahindra grants. (2016, October 19). Retrieved November 18, 2018, from https://www.michfb.com/MI/Farm_News/Content/People/Detroit_urban_agriculture_gets_Mahindra_grants/ Community Mini-Grants. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2018, from https://cures.wayne.edu/outreach/-minigrants
Community Food Project 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...".
KGD provides agricultural resources for new gardeners and farmers, and opportunities for financial growth through selling produce at various farmers markets.
Membership As a member of Keep Growing Detroit one gains access to a large variety of seeds and transplanted plants. "Under the program, families pay a $10 annual fee to receive 26 seed packets, 124 vegetable transplants, and discounts on educational programs. School gardens receive the same resources for $20 per year. Community and market gardens pay $20 per year to receive 78 seed packets and 364 transplants. The transplants are grown and distributed by volunteers at two locations in the city. Participants who volunteer a minimum of 2 hours of their time receive additional benefits such as compost, access to garden tools and soil testing." Members of Keep growing Detroit gain access to the Garden resource program plant varieties official document. This document outlines all the available plants a member is able to purchase from the organization as seeds or transplants. A table in the document outlines the basics of what the grower would be given to plant through certain packages that pertain to specific membership criteria. Every plant is labeled "F=family garden, S=school garden, C=community garden, M=market garden" these different labels present how much of any plant each type of garden is permitted. Additionally, there are four sections of seeds/transplants: Spring seeds, Hot crop transplants and seeds, cold crop transplants and fall crop transplants and seeds. Within these sections, The Keep growing Detroit 2018 Garden Resource Program Plant varieties document has a wide variety of plant options for each season. This is an important document for KDG members for it is what they are interacting with to obtain the plant materials they desire.seasonal plants retrieved from http://detroitagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2018_KGD_Plan-Your-Garden_GRP-seeds-and-plants.pdf/
Agricultural initiatives
There are four prominent urban agriculture initiatives that have occurred within Detroit. These are the Greening of Detroit, Earthworks, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and Michigan Urban Farming Initiative. Keep Growing Detroit is mentioned as a collaborator with two of these prominent urban agriculture organizations: Earthworks and Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Keep Growing Detroit collaborates with Earthworks by using them as a contracted grower to grow transplants that Keep Growing Detroit then distributes to thousands of their community garden members. Along with this, Earthworks organizes youth and adult programs five times a week in which they educate attendees on environmental awareness, growing food, healthy nutrition, and cooking/food preparation. The adult program goes a step further and teaches people farming skills they can apply to their own urban agriculture project. This education plays an important role in Earthworks relationship to Keep Growing Detroit. Their goal is the education obtained through this partner program will foster future KGD members. This will be useful to Earthworks who is the contracted grower for Keep growing Detroit, to maintain this relationship. Additionally, Keep Growing Detroit works with Detroit Black Community Food Security Network to organize workshops, community training activities, and the moving of produce. The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network was responsible for developing a food security policy for Detroit in 2006. In an attempt to move toward food sovereignty in Detroit. By 2008 the city council passed a resolution on the development of Detroit Food Policy Council. The foundation that was laid within this council acted as a platform from which Keep Growing Detroit could develop their mission toward urban agriculture.
Community outreach initiatives Since its founding, Keep Growing Detroit has operated several programs that work towards providing Detroit community members with access to sustainable agricultural practices and resources. Serving the primarily black food justice network, the programs work together to support black Detroit community gardeners, in hopes of reestablishing equity within the food system.
Garden Resource Program