December 2023 Sprouts

Most dligent changemakers,

We often talk about our work at Growing Hope as it relates to creating systemic change. But what is systemic change? How does one organization in Ypsilanti enact meaningful, systemic change?

On November 5th, I was honored to join more than 50 BIPOC organizers, advocates, community leaders, and allies who gathered virtually with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Ms. Ashwini K.P. A small group of us were asked to provide a brief oral testimony of our experiences of racial injustice as we work towards food sovereignty and face chronic food insecurity and food apartheid.

Our collective voice moves mountains.

Collaborating with folks around the country is awe-inspiring. I’m proud to be a part of this community alongside every one of you and have the opportunity to amplify our collective voice to enact systemic change. Online, you can find a summary of recommendations and Ms. Ashwini’s end-of-visit report, and I’ve included a snippet of my testimony below.

Land access is consistently the number one barrier to business development or ensuring a right to food for growers across our country. For growers of color, this disparity is magnified. I’m sure many of us know the national statistics that begin with stripping Black farmers of over 13 million acres of land and restricting them from federal resources for decades. This is a history that has led to redlining and apartheid that impacts every black grower today.

This week, I spoke with a Black farmer who has been farming on what has traditionally been Black land in a rural part of our community for the better part of a decade. He shared that it’s not uncommon for him to experience no warrant raids from police and threats of armed violence from nearby White residents. Because of this, many land-insecure Black farmers are being all but forced out of rural, resource-rich areas and closer to urban spaces where access to land is even more sparse.

Race uniquely affects urban growers. In cities where black and brown residents congregate, most with the most significant population, local governments use zoning and ordinances to control further how the already limited land can be used. In Ypsilanti, nearly two-thirds of all residential land is owned by just a few White property owners, and much of the remaining land is zoned in ways in which growing for production is unlawful.

In urban systems like these, I know of numerous landless farmers growing in parks and backyards spread across the region. For most growers who want to grow for themselves and their neighbors or families, there are limited ways to access any land to grow food. We work towards solutions to these barriers, such as community gardens, updated zoning and ordinances to support a right to garden, basing our food policy on the right to food, building growing commons, resource and skill sharing, and building home gardens.

There is an intrinsic connection between a right to garden and the right to food. If we can equip our community with the tools, resources, and land to grow for themselves and one another, we’ll collectively ensure fresh, local, and culturally appropriate produce for all.

Thank you for being a part of this movement.

In solidarity,

Julius

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When Food Is Weaponized

By Julius Buzzard • July 24, 2025

Standing for Krystal Clark and the Right to Eat

The wisest plans aren't drawn, they're grown.

By Julius Buzzard • July 1, 2025

Beloved Community, The solstice has turned, and with it, so have we; from spring’s promise to summer’s abundance. Here at Growing Hope, the gardens are bursting. Our new produce stand is packed to the brim, feeding our people. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market is an eruption of flavor, fragrance, and connection with lettuces that fan open like green flames and strawberries glistening red and warm from the sun. Inside the incubator kitchen, the hum of creativity rises. Local makers prepping for pop-ups across the county, building micro-enterprises from ancestral memory and modern hustle. And our Teen Leadership Program? Alive and electric. Twelve young visionaries are learning, leading, and laboring with heart. The farm pulses with their energy. As the land leans fully into the heat of summer, I find myself reflecting, not just on the harvest, but on the moment. The landscape around us is shifting fast. This moment has been described in many different ways, but we know the truth: this is a time of hope and possibility. Hope is not naïve. It’s an act of defiance. Of imagination. Of sovereignty. In complex times, the wisest plans aren't drawn, they're grown. Last month, I had the honor of testifying before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture . I shared what you already know: Growing Hope doesn’t just run programs. We grow possibility. We practice emergence. We tend a living ecosystem of relationships. I told them: Each year, Growing Hope supports hundreds of backyard growers through our Home Vegetable Garden program. We provide raised beds, rich soil, seedlings, and the knowledge to grow a harvest that feeds families. These aren’t symbolic plots—they’re productive, generative, and abundant. And from them, we are witnessing the reweaving of a community food web—a quiet, powerful economy of mutual aid. Tomatoes for cucumbers. Collards on porches. Elders teaching youth to save seed. These gardens offer more than food. They offer belonging. They offer resilience. They offer infrastructure—the kind that actually holds when the shocks come. This isn’t charity. This is solidarity. It’s sovereignty. It’s survival. Together, we carry resilience. Together, we cultivate hope. Together, we are growing a hyper-local, sovereign, joyful food system; one garden, one porch, one plate at a time. In solidarity and soil, Julius P.S. The future of food assistance is uncertain ; we’re collecting stories to highlight the essential role that SNAP and other food assistance programs play in the Washtenaw County local food system. Keep an eye on our blog to learn more.

Innovating for Inclusion: Lessons from Old City Acres on Digital SNAP Access

By Julius Buzzard • June 27, 2025

Old City Acres, a Ypsilanti urban farm and food hub, is one of the only farms in the region individually accredited to accept SNAP. The farm is owned and run by Alex Ball, who has lived and farmed along the Huron River his entire life. Growing up in Southeast Michigan during The Great Recession, Alex knows that people’s financial and food security can be changed overnight, and has always understood the importance of SNAP programs for community food security. Old City Acres is primarily an e-grocer–they offer home delivery and multiple in-town pickup locations for produce, but all of the produce is purchased through their online portal. When they first started taking SNAP, the intent was to integrate more SNAP users into online CSA boxes and other produce sales. Alex worked with Taste the Local Difference, a Michigan-based local food marketing organization, to generally expand e-access for local food. However, they found that there is very little demand for online SNAP sales, largely because of a lack of awareness and training on the customer side. Despite his best efforts, Alex wasn’t able to break through that barrier for e-grocery SNAP use. Despite 20% of his sales being SNAP pre-pandemic, there was such little demand after moving online that he eventually stopped advertising about e-grocery SNAP and isn’t accepting new SNAP customers (though long-term customers are still able to use SNAP). Old City Acres spends more on just maintaining their SNAP infrastructure (the Bridge card reader) than they make in profit from SNAP sales, but have decided to keep their infrastructure because when they do have their pop-up, in-person, farm stand, there is still high demand for SNAP. Because of the struggle to transfer in-person SNAP use into the e-grocery space, Old City Acres has their own internal food access programs. They offer credit packages, where investing $75 or more into the farm gives you a bonus on each dollar you spend. They also offer no-interest payment plans on all of the credit packages, and there has been a surge in demand for this option over the past year. Finally, Old City Acres also offers a $10/week for an as-much-as-you-want option geared towards students and older community members, which people can access regardless of their official SNAP eligibility. These options help fill the gap left by a lack of e-grocery SNAP use, but they also put Old City Acres in a constant battle to maintain profitability, since they’re bearing the food assistance costs internally. The farm used to be much more access-focused, but according to Alex they have been left with no choice but to raise certain prices, which is difficult in an area where the customer base is so susceptible to even small price changes (about ⅓ of the customer base makes less than 50k in household income). This has left Old City Acres in the position of having to make tough decisions, not all of which help with community food access. The lack of SNAP awareness and use in small-scale e-grocery spaces highlights one of the limitations of current food assistance programs. This post is part of a series by Emma Rose Hardy, a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan and the Rackham Local Food Systems Intern at Growing Hope. The series aims to highlight the essential role that SNAP and other food assistance programs play in the Washtenaw County local food system.

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