National Farmers Market Week 2024

Happy National Farmers Market Week!

National Farmers Market Week is more than just a celebration; it is a testament to the enduring importance of local farmers markets in fostering community, promoting health, and advancing food sovereignty.

In Ypsilanti, the farmers market strives to be a vibrant hub of activity, showcasing the transformative power of these markets in building resilient food systems, empowering communities, and nurturing a deeper understanding of where our food comes from. One of the standout initiatives at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market is the Power of Produce (POP) Club. Now in its second season, this innovative program is designed to engage children in the vibrant world of fresh produce and local eating. In addition to engaging in activities to learn about fruits & vegetables, each participant receives tokens to spend on fresh produce at the market.

Savannah is a four-year-old girl who had never been a fan of vegetables. After joining the POP Club, Savannah learned about different types of produce and how they grow and was particularly intrigued by the vibrant colors and sweet taste of local peaches. Savanah now peaches as a weekly treat at the farmers market using her POP tokens. She’s even embarked on a mission to try every fruit and vegetable at the market!

Through the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, we invest in generational health and advocate for our community’s just and sovereign food system. In partnerships with local organizations and community groups, the market continually pioneers and implements programs that make fresh, healthy food more accessible to low-income families.

A thriving local farmers market is indicative of a thriving local food system.

We empower individuals with the knowledge and skills to cultivate their farms and gardens and nurture space to engage within the local food economy. Owning and taking pride in growing food for oneself and one’s community is a powerful step towards achieving food sovereignty.

As we celebrate this week, let us also commit to supporting our local farmers markets year-round. By doing so, we invest in the health and well-being of our communities, promote food sovereignty, and ensure a brighter, more sustainable future for all.

In Solidarity,

Julius

P.S. Join us for the Ypsilanti Farmers Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.—this week, we’ll be celebrating with a summer bash!

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Georgia Gilmore & The Club From Nowhere

By Julius Buzzard • February 18, 2026

During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, when formal fundraising was surveilled and criminalized, Georgia Gilmore organized something deceptively simple: a kitchen network . Known as The Club From Nowhere , Gilmore and other Black women sold pies, cakes, and home-cooked meals to quietly raise money for the movement. Their anonymity was protection. Their food was infrastructure. For over a year, as the boycott stretched on, these funds paid for carpools, gas, and daily survival. While history often centers on speeches and marches, Gilmore reminds us that revolutions are sustained behind the scenes by those who feed people, organize logistics, and keep the lights on. Her kitchen was a site of resistance. Her recipes were tools of liberation. At Growing Hope, we honor this lineage every time we invest in food entrepreneurs, incubator kitchens, and cooperative models. When food businesses are community-rooted, they do more than generate income; they fuel movements . Never underestimate what food can do. And never forget who has always been doing the work.

Fannie Lou Hamer & the Freedom Farm Cooperative

By Julius Buzzard • February 11, 2026

“If you have 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, nobody can push you around.” Fannie Lou Hamer said this not as a metaphor, but as a lived experience. In 1969, after being evicted from her plantation home for registering to vote, Hamer founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The goal was simple and radical: Black families deserved land, food, housing, and economic independence, without having to ask permission. Freedom Farm grew vegetables, raised livestock, built homes, and supported cooperative ownership. It addressed hunger and poverty at their roots, refusing the lie that liberation could come without material security. Hamer understood what we still grapple with today: political rights mean little without food sovereignty . Voting doesn’t protect you from hunger. Legislation doesn’t replace land. Dignity requires access to the means of survival. This is why Growing Hope centers farming, education, and entrepreneurship together. Food sovereignty is not just about what’s on your plate; it’s about who controls the systems that decide who eats .

The Black Panther Party & Free Breakfast

By Julius Buzzard • February 4, 2026

In 1969, the Black Panther Party launched the Free Breakfast for Children Program , serving tens of thousands of children across the United States every single school day. Not as an act of charity, but as a declaration. The Panthers understood something the dominant systems refused to acknowledge: a hungry child cannot learn, organize, or imagine a future . Feeding children was a political act. It was protection. It was strategy. Volunteers cooked before dawn in church basements and community centers. Children were served breakfast while learning about Black history, self-determination, and collective responsibility. The state noticed and felt threatened. The FBI labeled the program “the greatest threat” to internal security, not because it was violent, but because it worked. And it worked so well that the U.S. government was forced to expand public school breakfast programs nationwide . Mutual aid didn’t just meet immediate needs; it reshaped public policy . This is food sovereignty in action: communities identifying harm, meeting their own needs with dignity, and building power in the process. At Growing Hope, we carry this legacy forward. When we insist on dignified access to food, when we support farmers markets as sites of connection and not extraction, when we center youth and Black leadership, we are walking a well-worn path. When communities feed themselves, systems change.

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