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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Rooted Again: A National Farmers Market Week Reflection

By Julius Buzzard • August 1, 2026

Beloved community, As we enter the final weeks of summer and back into the rhythm of the school year, it’s impossible not to recognize how hard it’s been to breathe as of late (in every sense). A few short weeks ago, smoke drifted down from wildfires burning across Ontario and settled over Southeast Michigan with force. As air quality alerts stacked on top of heat advisories, everyone from youth to elders was advised to mask up or otherwise remain indoors. In the same stretch, Michigan’s cyclospora outbreak kept climbing past six thousand confirmed cases. Understandably, many have been left feeling paralyzed. Clean air and safe food are not amenities; they are the foundation on which we build food sovereignty. Right now, it feels like that foundation is beginning to crumble, and crumble beneath some more than others. The folks breathing the worst air and eating the least trustworthy food are disproportionately Black, brown, Indigenous, low-income, elderly, young, or some combination of all of it. This pattern is known as environmental racism, meaning the way pollution, contamination, and environmental harm land hardest on communities of color and low-income communities. Whether it’s a decision about a permit, protective rights, or a pipeline, this happens by design. Last month, for example, Michigan's environmental agency approved permits allowing Enbridge to build a new tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, locking in another 99 years of fossil fuel infrastructure running beneath the largest freshwater system on the planet. While this devalues, or even ignores, the long-term health of our climate, economies, and water (another foundational element to life), the environmental harm of this decision is just the tipping point. Construction threatens ground that includes Native American burial sites, and tribes are being handed what one Native American Rights Fund attorney representing Bay Mills Indian Community called an agonizing choice between digging up and recovering their own ancestors before bulldozers arrive, or leaving that work to the state once construction starts. That same attorney, David Gover, put it plainly: "What is more sacred than how we treat our dead?" The grief, rage, and anxiety showing up in our community as a result of these compounding factors is real, merited, and inextricably tied to what’s happening to the land, water, and air on which we, and our food, depend. But it’s not the end of the story. Behind Growing Hope's mission is a strongly rooted belief that communities deserve autonomy within the entirety of their food system. You cannot separate a just food system from a just relationship to place. The cure to systems that poison our air, contaminate our food chains, and desecrate sacred ground is hope that is deeply seeded in community. It's in building a local food system that celebrates the growers, land stewards, and makers that paint a portrait of a vibrant local food system. And that's what a farmers market is, when you get down to it. It's a supply chain you can see with your own eyes. It’s names you know and fields you can visit. It’s fresh produce that arrives from caring hands just moments away from home. It's food grown by people accountable to this community. And when we feel betrayed by the very air and food we need to survive, this is all more important than ever. That’s why I’m excited that this is reaching you right on the edge of National Farmers Market Week, August 2-8, formally proclaimed by the Ypsilanti City Council at their last meeting. Come join us in our weekly celebration of local food at the Ypsilanti Farmers Markets on Saturdays, 9a-1p, at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace (16 S. Washington St.) Underneath all of it (the smoke, the cyclospora headlines, the pipeline permits) is us. A community vying for a food system where we can gather, cook, and grow together without fear. See you at the market, Julius P.S. Even if you can’t join us to celebrate National Farmers Market Week on Saturday, August 8, you can share your thoughts and help us plan for the future (even get entered to win a great prize) by completing our annual market survey .

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.

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