A coalition of Detroit urban farmers have taken the next step toward building a new community food and resilience center in the North End.
Earlier this month, the group purchased a 9,000-square-foot former grocery store with a $10 million plan to turn the building into a solar-powered center outfitted with a commercial kitchen, food storage, community event space and an agriculture-related business training center. There are also plans for a dedicated one-bedroom “care unit” living space for residents experiencing emergencies.
The building, located at Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, is the first of several food resiliency hubs that the emerging nonprofit Detroit Food LOOP plans to create to give Detroiters more control over their own food systems.
“Food sovereignty is not so much about access; it’s more about the power, and that’s the gap that this project fills,” said Hebron.
Jerry Ann Hebron, executive director of Northend Christian Community Development Corporation and Oakland Avenue Urban Farm (OAUF), said supporting local food is even more essential right now with “escalating challenges facing farmers nationwide.”
The center is something that local farmers have been thinking about long before the 2024 presidential election.
“When the new administration came in, those federal funds got cut, grants and everything,” she said. “But the fact that we did not get the funding did not stop the need for us to have this community resilience food hub within our community.”
Several years ago, Detroit was expected to be the first city to get a USDA service center focusing on urban farming. But Congress failed to renew the 2018 Farm Bill, which expired in 2023 and still hasn’t been renewed, instead relying on extensions.
“It would have been nice to have that type of support, but we can empower ourselves and get our own support,” said Hebron.
Detroit Food LOOP was founded by OAUF, Cadillac Gardens, Feedom Freedom Farms, Sacred Spaces, Beaverland Farms, Detroit Food Policy Council and Community Connections and is working with the City of Detroit Office of Sustainability.
“I’ve watched OAUF grow over time and am so proud to see it today as a true community asset,” Tepfirah Rushdan, director of the Office of Sustainability, said in a press release.
The group purchased the building Aug. 14 for $325,000, using a $350,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and a commercial Community Development Financial Institution loan. They’re seeking an additional $8-$10 million in support.
Detroit Food LOOP is looking for corporate sponsors and offering naming rights for the North End center. The $10 million would support other food resilience hubs as well like Cadillac Urban Gardens, a unique 1-acre garden on top of a former parking lot in Southwest Detroit where free produce is grown for local residents.
Cadillac Urban Gardens is interested in a mobile food resiliency hub, so community members can access healthy, fresh-grown produce without facing immigration and customs enforcement.
Sanctuary Farms on Detroit’s east side is looking to purchase a building for another food and resiliency center, said Jon Kent, co-founder of Sanctuary Farms.
Another way residents can support besides donating is by buying food locally.
“Engage – the more folks are intentional about buying from local farmers and the [Detroit People’s Food] Co-op it only advances the work of the Food LOOP because that’s all in the same vein,” said Kent.
Plans for the center were developed with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at University of Detroit Mercy and will need to go before the City Council. Hebron said she expects they’ll present to the council in late September.
Before then, OAUF will host an emergency preparedness workshop Sept. 12.
