About

This website was created by three graduate students at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability in collaboration with partners at the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative Discovering PLACE and Michigan State University Extension's Community Food Systems Team. Nurturing Roots of Justice advances Michigan place-based K-12 food systems education underscored by climate change and environmental justice. 

The website is divided into two main sections: Learn and Teach. The Learn section provides information on the interconnected pillars of Place-based Education, Michigan Food Systems, Critical Food Literacy, and Environmental Justice. These four pillars guided the Nurturing Roots of Justice deliverables. The Teach section offers a Resource Hub and MI Food Stories Facilitator Guide for educators to implement food systems education in the classroom. 

To learn more about the project's background research, methods, deliverables, limitations, and recommendations for the clients, the final report was published in April 2025 on the University of Michigan Deep Blue library platform. The report is free for anyone to read. It describes the four pillars of the project, methods for gathering educator feedback, and the 16-month process to create the deliverables.