Addressing Inequities in the Food System: Perspectives from across Michigan

• Hanifa Adjuman - Education and Outreach Director, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

• Cynthia VanRenterghem - Executive Director, Growing Hope

• Ayanfe Jamison - Farm-to-Table Educator, New City Neighbors

Access to healthy and culturally important food is an issue that disproportionately affects communities of color, low income residents, and new Americans. Three organizations present on how they address inequities through their work with these populations. Growing Hope will discuss their framework and approaches to systems change to reach food sovereignty using three models that achieve short, medium and long-term goals: food distribution from our urban farm, supporting home and community gardens, and building future leaders in food justice work. New City Neighbors will discuss their model of providing youth employment through a 250-member social enterprise CSA, providing low-income accessibility via partnerships with local food pantries, and through CSA farm share sales. DBCFSN will discuss how they address food sovereignty and racial justice in Detroit through their seven acre urban farm—D-Town Farm, their Food Warriors Youth Development Program, and their latest and most ambitious project, the Detroit Food Commons which will include the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, a full service member/owner cooperative grocery store. Including Immigrants and Refugees in the Community Garden: Lessons Learned from The Garden Project in Lansing, Michigan

Including Immigrants and Refugees in the Community Garden: Lessons Learned from The Garden Project in Lansing, Michigan*

• Donny Comer, Program & Education Coordinator , Greater Lansing Food Bank Garden Project

• Dilli Chapagai - Immigrant and Refugee Liaison, Greater Lansing Food Bank’s Garden Project

Lansing, Michigan, is a Mid-Michigan city with a growing urban agriculture system, including over 100 community gardens facilitated by the Greater Lansing Food Bank Garden Project (GLFBGP). We conducted an engaged research project in three GLFBGP gardens with high refugee and immigrant enrollment to better understand: 1) the motivations of immigrants and refugees to engage in community gardening and 2) the ways the community garden experience facilitates belonging and inclusion both in the food system and in the local community. Our results illuminated four factors that facilitate inclusion and belonging of immigrant and refugee gardeners in the community garden network. In this presentation, we will share the history of the GLFBGP, the steps it has taken to support immigrants and refugee gardeners, and the results from our research with refugee and immigrant community gardeners in the GLFBGP network

*NOTE: This segment originally included a presentation of research and resources led by Vanessa Garcia Polanco, National Young Famers Coalition, but unfortunately, she will not be able to join us. We will instead hear more from the Greater Lansing Food Bank Garden Project and we will work with Vanessa to share her insights and work at another time!