Feeding More Than Hunger

CASSIAN LETHE, SNAP-ED, AND THE STRUGGLE TO KEEP COMMUNITY CARE ALIVE

Receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits is one thing. Knowing how to use those resources most beneficially is another. The role of SNAP-Ed, a federally funded grant program, is to bridge that gap and help people make their SNAP dollars stretch, teach them how to cook healthy meals, and lead physically active lifestyles. In Michigan, SNAP-Ed programs are run through the Michigan Fitness Foundation (MFF) and are present in all counties throughout the state. This program channels valuable resources into local organizations that aim to make a positive impact on the health of their communities, particularly in low-income areas.

Cassian Lethe is the food navigator at Growing Hope and runs the SNAP-Ed program. Each Saturday, Cassian goes to the Ypsilanti Farmers Market (which is run by Growing Hope). It distributes flyers containing information on resources for low-income community members, educates people on how to enroll in SNAP and how their benefits work, and prepares a recipe of the week, along with free samples to hand out. She describes the SNAP-Ed program as “a springboard for people’s agency,” a way for individuals to have their basic needs met, which then gives them the freedom and time to learn new things about food preparation and even grow their own food.

Cassian is passionate about helping people access food assistance because she grew up in a food-insecure household that did not access any benefits. She grew up in rural Texas, where she describes it as being very taboo to receive benefits. “You either don’t receive them or you do get them and you lie,” because of a perception that “if you need assistance, you are a burden.” Kids with reduced school lunches would be bullied, and cashiers at stores would harass people when they would pull out an EBT card and take much longer to serve them and check them out.

Because her family was food insecure but refused to receive benefits, Cassian began farming in her early teens as a way to help support her family. She raised cattle to sell at market, showed and sold chickens at 4H, and started researching permaculture, square foot gardening, and anything else that would make things easier for the family–and that would also work around her school schedule, since she was still only 15 when she began completely managing the farm.

At the time, she felt proud of what she had accomplished on the farm and of providing for the rest of her family. Still, she also started struggling with a myriad of health problems, including severe anxiety. At the time, she didn’t connect this to the fact that she was working basically from 6 am to 10 pm every day, and that all of her responsibilities were very high-stakes: if she didn’t provide lunch for her younger brother to bring to school, then he wouldn’t eat; if she burnt dinner, there wouldn’t be dinner; if she weren’t able to bring in enough money, her family wouldn’t have money for basic necessities.

Cassian is passionate about connecting people, through SNAP-Ed, to resources for basic necessities, so they have the time and resources to experiment with new foods and recipes. One of the things she has noticed about the SNAP recipients who take samples from her at the farmers market is that they frequently ask, “Are you sure they’re free?” Cassian emphasizes to program participants that the samples are free in multiple ways: the samples don’t cost any money, but they’re also free in the sense that people haven’t lost out on anything if they don’t like the sample. They didn’t waste money, waste food, put out their family, or any of the other things people experiencing food insecurity often worry about.

Fortunately, most people do like Cassian’s samples! They almost always run out, and many community members return week after week to try the next thing she has prepared. The recipes focus on ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into cooking, with a special emphasis on items people may not be familiar with, such as using beets to make “pink pancakes.” Food-insecure people with children often wouldn’t be able to risk making new foods like this at home; if the child doesn’t like it, then it would be a waste of food. But with the free samples, there’s no risk, and Cassian can immediately see the relief on parents’ faces when the kids seem happy with the sample. The parents then have the ability to take a recipe card with them and feel confident that if they cook this new recipe at home, their family will enjoy it. Through the free samples and accompanying recipe cards, community members can try new foods, gain knowledge about food, and take that knowledge home in an actionable form.

However, the members of the community Cassian serves as the SNAP-Ed coordinator at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market are worried about their future and often ask Cassian if she will have to stop coming to the market because of federal SNAP cuts. They are aware that the federal government's cuts to SNAP and other aid programs will affect them, but no one is yet certain how. Cassian’s worst fear is having to turn people away, because she knows what it’s like to feel like if you try to reach out for help, there won’t be anything there. SNAP-Ed is part of the something that she needed growing up, and she values being able to be that something for other members of her community.

Regardless of the federal cuts, Growing Hope will continue to do at least some of its food access work. Cassian explained that Growing Hope is like a field of various produce, where if there is a drought, some things will make it through, but not everything. She shared that every time a support system fails, it is the people who are most vulnerable who are hurt the most, and that Growing Hope can’t, on its own, save everyone, even though it would like to. She wants community members to feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they won’t be turned away, but due to the federal cuts, she is unsure if she’ll be able to provide that security anymore.

Cassian repeatedly emphasized how SNAP-Ed, SNAP, and other benefits programs work together to make the community as a whole healthier, and how the government’s recent cuts are relevant to us all:

“We’re not just individual points on a map, we’re pins stuck in a corkboard, which are all tied together. [Cutting benefits] will put strain on everyone, even if they don’t think that includes them. You’re going to be experiencing tension. Even if you feel like you’re not in any way tied to these government programs, you still need to go through the effort of advocating for those who do. Even in small ways.”

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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From Dream to Legacy

By Julius Buzzard • July 1, 2026

Introducing the growing hope accelerator kitchen!

Return of the Tuesday Market

By Julius Buzzard • June 1, 2026

Beloved community, June is alive in Ypsilanti, and so are we! The farm is buzzing with pollinators, heavy with the first fruits of the season, keeping the produce cart full, and tended by caring hands, sowing hope along with each seed. At the same time, the MarketPlace is filling back up with color and noise with the joy of neighbors who have looked forward to the market all winter. We have so much to celebrate this season! Namely, the Tuesday Farmers Market is back! Starting tomorrow (June 2), the Ypsilanti Farmers Market will run not only on Saturday mornings, but also every Tuesday from 3 to 7 pm, through August, right here at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace. That means every week we’ll have two opportunities to invest in our local food system while building the community care that makes a market special. This matters more than it might seem on the surface. Many community members have shared that while they love the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, want to support local farmers and makers, and believe in local food, Saturday mornings simply do not work for their lifestyles. Saturday mornings may be reserved for overtime shifts or soccer games, or to recover from a week that didn’t seem to give anything back. For some, they can only get the financial assistance or translation services needed to fully participate on a weekday. For many of our neighbors, Saturday mornings are simply not free. Access can only be actualized when every community member experiences it. It’s as much about time as it is about proximity. We've always said that the Ypsilanti Farmers Market is for everyone in our community, and the Tuesday market is our effort to live that out more fully. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market, in each step toward the future, is a step toward a living vision we have built together. Toward a vision of the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace as a community food hub, an anchor in the life of our city and of our local food system. A place where neighbors come together, build community, and leave united; all while gathering around food. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market is not purely about simple transactions. It’s about practicing what it looks like for a community to feed itself. It nurtures spaces where farmers can move their harvest and where small businesses can grow. The Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace is fostering that mid-week run-in with a neighbor, reminding us that we are not alone. We are grateful to the farmers, vendors, and partners who said yes to this. And we are grateful to our entire market team, who make it possible week after week, with devotion and creativity that continues to humble me. This spring, our Teen Leadership Program launched our second Seed Library, located at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace, which is available to the community at every market. Because everyone deserves a chance to grow. Seeds hold within them the agricultural knowledge of generations, the food traditions of all of humankind. When we talk about seed sovereignty, we are not simply speaking about the practical reality of who controls the global seed supply (the four corporations that control 60% of the seed and pesticide supply). Rather, it goes a level deeper into the question of who and what gets to be remembered. "Farmers are literally archivists of the land." -Abena Offeh-Gyimah Seeds are stories. They are living reminders of all the ancestors who walked before us. When we save and share seeds, we are practicing reciprocity with Mother Earth, and with one another. The seed library that our teens built is just the beginning. Our hope is that it grows into a circular system . We dream of a future where the seed library at the farm and MarketPlace are filled with self-labeled packets of seeds saved from the harvest of our community. We dream of a food future that sits in the hands of the very community that tends it. This is seed rematriation in practice, and I’m excited to grow with you. In solidarity, Julius P.S. Your support makes this food system possible, whether it is financial, volunteer, or saving seeds; we’re in this together. Keep an eye out for future newsletters for a hands-on seed-saving workshop later this year.

Food is A Right and Community is Medicine

By Julius Buzzard • May 1, 2026

Beloved community, May has arrived, and Southeast Michigan has exhaled into spring. As seedlings begin to sprout and Mother Earth does her thing, After a long winter of waiting, there is something deep inside each of us that leans toward the light. And I think it’s crucial that we lean into that light after so much darkness. That we lean into what it means to reach towards what we need and deserve, not simply an act of grace, but as a right of every living organism. This spring, I want to lean into the right to food. Sometimes, the most radical ideas are also the simplest. The right to food means every person, regardless of zip code, income, skin color, or the circumstances of their birth, has the inherent right to access sufficient, safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. And it doesn’t start at the dinner table. It incorporates the farmer who needs land to grow, the farmworker who deserves a living wage, and the maker who wants to build the food business of their ancestors' dreams. The right to food means that spaces such as the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace and Growing Hope Urban Farm are part of community infrastructure. The right to food is a whole-systems claim that urges us to stop seeing hunger as a distribution issue and instead recognize it as an issue of who is invited to the table. This is not a novel idea. The right to food has been recognized in international law since 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined it as part of every person's right to an adequate standard of living. It was further codified in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which is legally binding for 172 countries. Notably, our country has been missing from that list. While enough food is produced to feed everyone, and still, up to 720 million people experience hunger, and 2.6 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. Today, one in seven residents in Washtenaw County questions where their next meal will come from. This represents a failure of will, not imagination. It’s the result of systems that treat food as a commodity rather than a birthright. But we don’t have to accept that as the finish line. There are multiple states and communities within our country that have codified the right to food, and we’d love for you to join us in advancing and declaring this right in our community. By treating food insecurity as a rights violation rather than a personal failing, we shift the policy debate from political aspiration to human obligation. It’s this shift, from charity to solidarity, that lines the foundation of Growing Hope’s work. Just a few days ago, we sent a group of staff, partners, and volunteers to Lansing to walk through the doors of power and speak with honesty and humility. We talked about what the right to food means on the ground. We talked about what we believe Michigan can do. We advocated for systems that uphold the right to food for every aspect of the food system. Importantly, we left knowing that we are not alone in this. Across the country, community organizers are rallying around this core principle. As one organizer stated, “We need to state the obvious right now, because the systems we relied on are being eroded very actively." We are not growing gardens. We are growing self-determination. We are growing community. We are Growing Hope. I said at the beginning that food is a right, and I believe that with everything in me. Unfortunately, rights don't enforce themselves. They require community to join together, to ensure accountability, and to be a continual reminder of what we are committed to. This is the community we are building. We invest and believe so deeply in this viewpoint for one simple reason, which feels more true now than ever before: community is medicine. Together we share some ailments, but our collective resources are innumerable. And while we don’t know where we’ll end up on the other side of the change and chaos swirling around us, we can be certain that we’ll arrive together. Proximity and hope are foundational building blocks for a community of healing. This is the type of community that demands systems of care that uphold our basic human rights, while sharing its resources to meet our collective needs. Together, we are growing food. We are gathering. We are ensuring the right to food. And we are healing one another through community. We are watching the systems we have long depended on fray at the edges in real time. We are responding, in unison, saying: we are not waiting for permission to be fed. That is the work. Thank you for being part of it. In solidarity, Julius P.S. The right to food is more than a principle. It's a promise we make to one another. You can read our Right to Food Declaration, add your name, and share your story (with a chance to win a $50 gift card) at growinghope.net/righttofood .

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