Feeding the Freedom to Grow

Ford is honoring Black Business Month by supporting entrepreneurship, culture and cuisine to the table. We’re celebrating those who inspire us through their stories like Peace Tree Parks, a nonprofit that works to convert vacant land into gardens allowing them to beautify the city while feeding the community.

The founders are proud Ford owners dedicated to increasing access to fresh produce in the community they know and love.

“To repurpose the land, our goal was to feed the community once we discovered Detroit was pretty much a food desert at the time,” said Eric Andrews, Cofounder of Peace Tree Parks. Peace Tree Parks plays a vital role in increasing access to fresh organic produce in Metro Detroit. In 2015, when the nonprofit was established, the city had been a food desert for almost a decade.

High school best friends Eric Andrews and D’Andre Riggins began this movement after noticing an increase in vacant land, lack of grocery stores, and realizing the need for more access to fresh organic produce and healthy food options.

It began as an awareness campaign for

Peace Tree Parks to educate community members on the variety of produce that could be grown in Detroit. Each month, they hosted volunteer events where they taught others how to plant, maintain their garden, and harvest crops. They worked with the Detroit Land Bank Authority to begin repurposing vacant land throughout the city into community spaces. This partnership led to a process that now allows neighborhoods across the city to duplicate the concept that was developed at their first community garden site.

“So, we started growing produce – we grew everything from watermelon, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and strawberries. It was more of an awareness thing, we wanted to show the community that this is the variety of produce that you can grow in your backyard,” said Andrews.

Planting the Future Peace Tree Parks has two initiatives which work together to reach those in need, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Their community garden program is for residents in the surrounding area to pick produce at no charge. The organization has converted

“To repurpose the land, our goal was to feed the community once we discovered Detroit was pretty much a food desert at the time,” said Eric Andrews, Co-founder of Peace Tree Parks (pictured left), with Brianna Andrews, Director of Marketing and a total of 13 vacant lots into community gardens which has inspired many to begin growing their own produce. The organization’s other initiative is the residential garden program which was created as an extension of the community garden program to provide access to those that don’t live nearby. The program’s mission is to bring organic gardening to the backyards of those who want direct access to produce options. Those

Governor Tim Walz recently chaired the Council of Governors’ 27th plenary meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The meeting focused on the progress made on issues of cybersecurity, emergency management and disaster response, issues impacting the Air and Army National Guard, workforce matters, and strategic defense budget trends.

“As a 24-year veteran of the National Guard, it was an honor to convene the bipartisan Council of Governors meeting today and discuss how we can work together to advance our common interests in homeland security and emergency management,” said Governor Walz. “Our country is better off when we come together in a bipartisan manner to solve problems. I am grateful for the opportunity to build on this state-federal partnership.”

The President’s bipartisan Council of Governors was established by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 as a forum for governors to exchange views, information, or advice with the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, and the White House Homeland Security Council on matters of national security, homeland defense, and disaster response and recovery. Governor Walz, a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, was appointed by the President in 2021 to lead the council along with co-chair Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. interested in joining this program should begin by completing an online application. Although the program is free for local residents, donations are encouraged to support its growth.

Peace Tree Parks also offers farm-to-school programming and has collaborated with various schools in the Detroit Public School District (DPSD) to implement aspects of their programming.

By Chuck Hobbs

Early this morning in Tallahassee, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his suspension of Orlando area State Attorney Monique Worrell (D) for what he alleges is her refusal to pursue “appropriate” charges in serious cases.

In full disclosure, I have known State Attorney Worrell since our school days at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in the late 90’s, so I can personally vouch for her perspicacity and commitment to justice.

That said, Worrell becomes the latest democratically elected prosecutor to draw the ire of a Republican governor using racial dog whistles to intimate that Democratic prosecutors, in general, and Black elected prosecutors, specifically, are “soft on crime.”

As with most things these days, the truth—or lack thereof—of these Republican talking points is sorely lacking! You see, the main issue in these matters over the past decade has been prosecutors using their constitutionally based discretion to seek alternative sentences on drug possession crimes, or, to limit instances within which the death penalty is sought for capital murder charges, who have drawn the ire of Republicans who like to see those charged with such offenses—disproportionately Black or Brown—face long prison sentences. Indeed, self-styled “tough on crime” types like DeSantis and his predecessor, now Sen. Rick Scott, have used their executive branch authority to suspend prosecutors who were reticent to lead legal lynch mobs against defendants accused of first degree murder.

Curiously, Sen. Scott, while governor, meddled in the affairs of Worrell’s prosecutorial predecessor, Aramis Ayala, allegedly due to her refusal to