Family Farms Conference workshop recordings highlight sustainable agriculture
Videos include farmer SARE grant projects, farmer wellness, farm to school, agritourism, small-scale livestock and more.
Get your hands dirty, volunteer on a Detroit farm
Numerous urban farms and gardens in Detroit host volunteers to assist with tasks from weeding to harvesting to maintenance.
Seed Award Spotlight: Sanctuary Farms
In early 2024, 11 Seed Award winners were chosen to receive seed funding totaling almost $150,000, based on their businesses’ commitment to promoting racial equity, enhancing healthy food access, fostering job creation, and embracing resilient climate practices.
Among these deserving winners is Sanctuary Farms, an organic farm in Detroit’s lower east side that has transformed city blocks into an urban oasis, providing fresh, affordable produce to the community.
Reflections on Mutual Aid: Mother Earth’s Call to Action for Regeneration by jøn kent
Living cooperatively is no easy task. As humans, we are all one species but we all have distinct fingerprints. This duality between self and group based identities might lead one to paralysis when analyzing human social life if we believe in the false narratives of the bootstrapping mentality. . However, for those who see mutual aid in all we do, we are able more readily to see our differences as the beauty of life.
The Good Life Italia
Catch us in The Good Life, an Italian publication that discusses fashion, lifestyle, and travel. While writing a piece about the City of Detriot, they reached out to us at Sanctuary Farms to learn more about the positive difference we’re out here making within the community.
Introducing Urban Farm & Composting Site Sanctuary Farms, Detroit
Sanctuary Farms is an urban farm in Detroit, building a community-based produce and composting operation.
Seed Award Spotlight: Sanctuary Farms
Michigan Good Food Fund is happy to announce the recipients of its inaugural Seed Awards, recognizing Michigan-based food and farm businesses making an impact in their communities. With a focus on promoting racial equity, enhancing healthy food access, fostering job creation, and embracing resilient climate practices, the Seed Awards are a cornerstone of the Michigan Good Food Fund’s commitment to supporting local food and farm entrepreneurs.
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 Farms Receives the 2023 Michigan Recycling Coalition Award of Excellence for an Organization
Sanctuary Farms receives the 2023 Michigan Recycling Coalition Award of Excellence for an Organization.
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.
Detroiters are asking the right questions about the city’s solar farms plan
The initiative to build solar farms on vacant land in blighted neighborhoods has been met with both skepticism and enthusiasm from residents living near nine competing sites
Detroit Evening Report: Urban farm tracking pollution from nearby Stellantis plant
Sanctuary Farms, a small organic farm and composter on Detroit’s east side, has installed solar powered air monitors on their property in response to the 200,000-plus pounds of toxic chemicals the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the auto company releases each year, Bridge Detroit reports.
Detroit farms install monitors to track air pollution
Sanctuary Farms installed a solar-powered air monitor to track pollution from the nearby Stellantis auto plant. Partnering with the Ecology Center, they aim to empower residents with real-time air quality data and address environmental injustices.
Duggan shortlists nine neighborhoods to host city-owned solar farms
Some residents hope the program would cut down on blight and illegal dumping; others voice skepticism.
Congratulations to 17 SARE grant awardees in 2023
North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) has distributed over $9 million to fund 313 grant projects in Michigan since 1988. Just in 2023, $1,318,142 in new funding will support 17 Michigan research and education projects. Follow the links below to learn more about the grants.
MI Farmer Advocates for Farm Bill Changes
Call for federal reforms that bolster sustainable agriculture and address climate change
Farmers on the Hill: Advocates and Farmers Join in Washington DC to Call for Food and Agriculture System Reform in the 2023 Farm Bill
As the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are busy working on their respective first drafts of the 2023 Farm Bill, farmers and advocates took an important opportunity to speak to Members of Congress about improved agriculture policy needs.
Small Business Spotlight: Sanctuary Farms
When thinking about Detroit, farming probably doesn’t come to mind. Two locals, Jon Kent and Parker Jean, are working to change that narrative, while improving their community in the process.
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