NextCycle Michigan City of Detroit | 2025 Fall Showcase
The Detroit Decentralized Composting Network, a partnership between the City of Detroit and Sanctuary Farms, aims to reduce food waste by creating a sustainable, decentralized composting system. The project will cut methane emissions, improve soil health, and provide economic opportunities, while expanding access to composting services and serving as a model for other cities in sustainable waste management.
Panel on Food Waste (jøn kent, Reneé V. Wallace, Hajime Sato, and Jamina Shupack)
Learn from four innovative panelists: jøn kent, Reneé V. Wallace, Hajime Sato, and Jamina Shupack, as they share their insights and diverse approaches to tackling food waste.
Ordinance allowing chickens, ducks and bees within Detroit city limits passes
Residents can raise up to eight chickens or ducks and a maximum of two beehives. More than 2,000 homes are expected to do so in the next 10 years, according to the city.
Lunch & Learn Producers Panel
Check out the Lunch & Learn Producers Panel by the National Urban Agriculture Initiative, featuring our co-founder jøn kent! jøn shares what it means to be a farmer in Detroit and highlights the impactful projects we’re working on to uplift our community and protect the environment.
SBN Detroit: Revitalizing Detroit with Sanctuary Farms
Discover how Sanctuary Farms is part of the Black urban agriculture movement, promoting a circular economy and engaging food entrepreneurs by offering opportunities to scale sustainable agriculture in Detroit.
Kiss the Ground: 5 with a Farmer
Did you know that Detroit is one of the top cities in the U.S. for urban agriculture, with over 2,200 gardens and farms? Detroit's Sanctuary Farms is bringing food to the people, helping build supportive food systems, and giving their community the opportunity to see how things are grown. They're also teaching us that farming can be wholesome, connected, and diverse.
Detroit is Different | Interview with jøn kent
Join Detroit is Different in this special live interview recorded at the 2024 Detroit Policy Conference, where host Khary Frazier and Bevlove dive into discussing how to retain residents in the Motor City. Guests explore the multifaceted aspects of community engagement and the roles we all play in shaping Detroit's future. Featuring voices of legacy Black Detroiters, NeighborHub Grant winners, and program directors, this episode delves into the heartbeat of Detroit's neighborhoods, discussing initiatives that empower small businesses and nonprofits.
Sanctuary Farm provides Detroiters with affordable food, monitors air pollution
On Detroit's east side, city blocks were once filled with houses in disrepair. Co-founder of Sanctuary Farms Jon Kent, an eastsider himself, is now helping lead the change in his community cleaning up city blocks and putting them to good use.
Urban farms provide Detroiters with affordable, organic food while battling air pollution
They've done a lot to help revitalize city blocks by turning them into urban farm oasis to provide affordable organic food to those in the neighborhood.
Food Deserts to Urban Oases: Circular Economy Solutions
With America’s gap between wealth and poverty widening, city dwellers take matters into their own hands with grassroots farming cooperatives
From farm to table: How urban farmers are helping food insecure neighborhoods in Detroit
"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."