Keep Growing Detroit (KGD) is an essential part of Detroit’s urban farming ecosystem.

Not only does it own and operate a 1.38-acre farm and teaching facility in Detroit’s Eastern Market, but it also runs a nationally recognized program that provides garden resources and technical assistance to local growers, an urban garden education series, a communitysupported agriculture subscription and so much more.

Keep Growing Detroit is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, while its Garden Resource Program, which provides seeds, transplants and support to gardeners in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck, is approaching 20 years.

The Garden Resource Program exists for Detroiters to grow their own food and have access to food that’s grown within city limits.

KGD Development & Engagement Coordinator Danielle Daguio said, “At Keep Growing Detroit, we say that we are ‘cultivating a food sovereign city,’ which means we’re growing and deepening Detroiters’ connections to where their food comes from.”

In 2022, KGD served over 2,000 local gardens and farms through the Garden Resource Program. The program also provides cooking classes, workshops and other community events to local growers for only $15 a year for a family garden and $30 for a community, school or market garden.

“You can get seeds and plants from anywhere, but you can come to KGD without knowing where to start, and we’ll support you with just about everything you need to get growing,” Daguio said. “There’s a lot of social capital that gets built up doing this work. Studies show that people are less lonely when they have a garden because they can join a community where they can share with others, not just what they’re producing but also a connection with one another.”

KGD relies heavily on volunteers to keep the farm and Garden Resource Program running smoothly. Last year, the farm had roughly 2,300 volunteers assist with tasks ranging from bed preparation and planting to transplant production and seed packing. Like most grassroots organizations, the full-time staff at KGD is small but mighty. Of 16 employees, 69% identify as BIPOC.

“If you want to talk about food sovereignty and land sovereignty, it has to be available to the people that are here, and this is a majority Black and brown city,” Daguio said. “People think eating healthy is for people who are rich or who are far away and don’t live in a city. The work that we get to do says no, it’s not for people who are rich. It’s not for people who live far away. It’s for people

READ The story on Page 14 to learn how The Henry Ford will help provide accessible edible education to all with its new learning kitchen scheduled to open in Greenfield Village in 2024c cFlowers, fruits, veggies and more prosper at Keep Growing Detroit’s farm in the Eastern Market district, managed by a team that includes Lola Gibson-Berg (left), farm activation coordinator, and Akello Karamoko, farm manager.

Detroit Sugar Bush Project

Started as a way for Black and Indigenous Detroiters to come together to reclaim the land and reconnect with Indigenous foodways, Detroit Sugar Bush Project gives this community an opportunity to address food and land access. During the late winter and early spring months, community members spend days tapping maple trees in Rouge Park for sap to make maple syrup and sugar.

It’s a grueling grassroots operation built on a strong collaboration with key Black and Indigenous leaders in the larger food sovereignty movement. Community partners include Detroit Indigenous Peoples Alliance, Black to the Land and Friends of Rouge Park. There’s no big corporation with tons of resources, paid employees or a processing facility where the maple syrup is made. Everything is done onsite, from tapping the trees to boiling the maple sap over fires built with wood chopped and transported by volunteers. Once enough sap is collected, Sugar Bush participants often camp overnight to tend to the boiling process. At the end of the season, maple syrup is shared with the community. It’s important to this community to learn and continue these traditions just as their ancestors have done from time immemorial.