FUN FACT: Stroh’s was first sold door-to-door from a wheelbarrow.
Hey, it’s JB!
I’m wrapping up my work for the year and want to say thank you to everyone who reads JB’s Bites (shoutout to my sister Jordan), sends story ideas, answers my questions, and for interacting with our local food system together.
A reflection on a year of food losses and triumphs in Detroit:
Triumphs:
- The Black-led Detroit People’s Food Co-op opened after more than a decade of visioning and planning.
- Detroit revived its Green Grocer Project to increase fresh food access in Detroit neighborhoods.
- Metro Detroit’s sustainable sushi restaurant Sozai came home with a James Beard food award.
- For the first time a rice camp was held at Fort Wayne to help urban Indigenous people reconnect to manoomin, or wild rice, traditions.
- A citywide composting program is in the works.
- Detroit dollar stores are beginning to clean up their mess.
- Detroit passed an ordinance legalizing backyard farm animals. (It’s sort of contentious to put in the triumph section, but I do think overall Detroiters wanted this and it’s a move toward food sovereignty.)
Losses:
- Detroit mourned the loss of two leaders in Detroit’s local food community: Max Hardy and Alexis Chingman Tijerina.
- The Detroit Institute of Bagels closed after several staff quit and the rest were fired.
- The USDA’s Detroit office is struggling; the first director of the office has resigned.
- The local food media ecosystem was noticeably diminished when Eater Detroit editor Serena Daniels was laid off, a decision which leaves the food news site “a shell of its former self,” former Detroit Free Press food critic Mark Kurlyandchik told Axios Detroit.
After accidentally not using my vacation days, I am excited to take a break, log off the Internet for a bit, and explore Mexico. Until I return, my coworkers, who also eat, will take over JB’s Bites.
Thank you for another year of JB’s Bites, everyone.
Dig In,
JB
- Focus: HOPE is looking for volunteers to deliver food to hundreds of seniors across metro Detroit on Dec. 21.
- The Mother Loaf bakery is expected to open Saturday at the site of the former Detroit Institute of Bagels and nearby, Gardenside Brewery “a brewpub offering great beer, food, and a nature-filled community space” is in the works.
- A new documentary “Detroit: The City of Chefs” airs at 9 p.m. on Detroit PBS.
- Michigan State University is hiring a Southeast Michigan local foods innovation counselor.
- Hop Cat is hiring a server.
