From farm to table: How urban farmers are helping food insecure neighborhoods in Detroit
(CBS DETROIT) - It's been three years since Food Town went up in flames here on Gratiot Avenue.
It was the last grocery store located within one mile from Mack and Van Dyke on Detroit's east side.
Now community farmers are taking a grassroots approach to bring fresh food back to the neighborhood.
"Mustard greens, arugula, a basic salad mix," said DazMonique Carr as she walked through the Deeply Rooted Produce garden.
The mobile grocery pantry grows produce and distributes the harvest to neighborhoods.
"It is the number one need in communities because everybody eats," Carr said.
The Mack and Van Dyke area is a part of Carr's route.
The neighborhood falls under the US Department of Agriculture's definition of a food desert.
"There is more liquor stores than there are grocery stores in this neighborhood and neighboring neighborhoods," Carr explained.
"So, there needs to be a bridge created between local farmers and those stores that are more prevalent in the neighborhoods."
The USDA defines a food desert as a low-income area where a substantial number of residents lack access to grocery stores within a one-mile radius.
The Detroit Food Policy Council's 2021 Food Metrics update shows 69% of Detroit households are food insecure.
The report also reveals Detroit is steadily losing full-line grocery stores due to industry challenges and slim profit margins.
Back In September, Detroit Now spoke with the city's Director of Planning and Development Antoine Bryant about the relationship between a neighborhood's Average Median Income and store locations.
"A lot of businesses are looking at a lot of data when it comes to where they locate their businesses, but one thing we share with grocers is that everybody eats," Bryant said.
"We're sensitive to the fact that upwards of 33% of Detroiters do not have access to a vehicle. We can't hold a gun to the head of our grocer and say you have to move here, you have to move there. We spend a lot of time in engagement in communities, just like surrounding Mack and Van Dyke, to be able to hear the same things that you're asking us about and we want to be able to provide options that are amendable to that community."
Sanctuary Farms is doing the groundwork to provide solutions to food insecurity.
Jon Kent is co-founder of the farm.
Kent's team developed a hoop house, garden and compost pile on Lakeview Street near Mack Avenue.
"This was an ideal situation because there's a lot of vacant land here," Kent said.
"This area basically is a food apartheid, so we basically wanted to be able to compost here and we believe in closing the food loop."
Kent says he wants to address the issue of food apartheid by growing organic produce.
"So, food apartheid really speaks to areas that have been historically maligned and disenfranchised," Kent said.
"So, a food desert just kind of speaks to the area having a lack of nutritious and organic food, but food apartheid really shows that there has been a long history of the lack of access to quality foods."
Kent says he's working to bring food sovereignty back to neighborhoods.
Meaning, the people who produce, distribute, and consume the food also control the food system and policies, not corporations.
"I'm all for grocery stores. I think they create, you know, great jobs and outlets for food entrepreneurs, but I really want to change the culture to get people to really go out and patronize their local gardens," Kent explained.
"And if we're able to setup systems in which, you know, we have these circular economies, we wouldn't need these you know big institutions to come to you know, quote-on-quote save us, because we got to save ourselves."
