Tea, Honey, and the Gift of Local Food

A Conversation with Growing Hope’s Teen Leaders

For most people, tea and honey are something you grab off a store shelf. But for a group of teens in Growing Hope’s Teen Leadership Program, these simple products became an experiment in food sovereignty, a crash course in business, and a way to build relationships with their community. They grew the herbs, harvested the honey, designed the packaging, and brought their creations to the Ypsilanti Farmers Market—where something amazing happened.

I sat down with Nick Garay, Tuula Martinez, Eli Harris, Jaylah Cotton, Josie Smith, and other Teen Leadership Program members to talk about what it was like to go from farm to market, why food is more than just a product, and what they learned about themselves along the way.

The Journey from Farm to Market

Julius Buzzard: I love that you didn’t just sell something at the market—you created something. Can you walk me through the process of making your tea and honey?

Tuula Martinez: We grew the herbs ourselves at Growing Hope Urban Farm, harvested them, and dried them in the prop house. A few weeks later, we processed them and put them into containers. Then came the fun part—designing and making tea bags! We had to decide together what flavors would sell best, how many tea bags to include in each pack, and how to package everything. I was part of the design team, so we worked on the labels and ordered the boxes.

Eli Harris: After our first day selling tea, we looked at which varieties sold best and adjusted. We added calendula because people seemed really interested in new flavors. Every tea bag was hand-assembled from coffee filters, cotton yarn, and staples—it was so much work!

"Wow, I’m Running a Business"

JB: What was it like to have your own booth at the market, talking with customers and selling something you made?

Nick Garay: It was really fun! I loved being at the market, seeing other vendors, and getting all these customers. It was kind of surreal to think that people would buy something we made—and then go home and drink our tea!

Sienna Troy: Other vendors came up to us and asked questions, and some even bought our tea. It felt like we were part of this bigger community.

Tuula Martinez: The vendors were so welcoming. It was our first time selling, and they made us feel like we belonged.

Food as a Gift & the Power of Farmers Markets

JB: Has this experience changed the way you think about food, business, or what you might want to do in the future?

Nick Garay: The market and working at Growing Hope really changed my perspective. I read Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry and started thinking about the gift economy—how food carries meaning when you buy it directly from the person who grew it, rather than just grabbing something off a grocery store shelf. That’s what this market is about.

Abby Rogers: It’s amazing to see how much work goes into farmers markets. Meeting the other vendors, learning about their products—it really opened my eyes to how much passion and effort goes into making local food available.

Eli Harris: A lot of people came to the market with a specific idea of what they wanted, but once we started talking to them, they got interested in what we were selling. That interaction made all the difference.

What’s Next?

The Teen Leadership Program is already planning to return to the market this year, bringing new products and fresh ideas.

"We’re talking about making herb salts next!" says Sienna.

"We want to show how growing food can be accessible to everyone," adds Tuula. "It’s a great investment—you plant once, and you keep harvesting. We’re practicing what we preach!"

And as for the market itself?

"We’ll be back—at least once this summer and again for the indoor market!"

📍 NEW LOCATION: 16 S. Washington Street

🛍 Opening Day: May 3, 2025 ⏰ 9 AM – 1 PM

Want to support the next generation of food entrepreneurs? Become a Friend of the Market today!

👉 Become a Friend of the Market Today!

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Nutrition and the Right to Thrive

By Julius Buzzard • February 26, 2026

Beloved community, March is National Nutrition Month, and across the country, we’re told to read labels more closely, count nutrients more carefully, and “eat real foods.” But nutrition is not a trend cycle; it is a question of power. I invite you to join me in curiosity and ask: Who has access to what’s being recommended? Who can afford the “real” food being celebrated? Who grows it, and who gets paid? Are we treating illness, or are we transforming the conditions that produce it? Health outcomes matter, but health equity goes further. Health equity asks why certain neighborhoods have higher rates of diabetes in the first place. It asks why fresh food feels exceptional in some zip codes and ordinary in others. It asks why farmers struggle to survive while healthcare systems expand. If we do not address land access, procurement policy, and economic extraction, then “eat real” risks becoming a quiet moral judgment instead of a structural commitment. Michigan once modeled real structural commitment through 10 Cents a Meal for Michigan's Kids & Farms ; matching school dollars to buy Michigan-grown produce and making local food standard in cafeterias. It strengthened children’s health, stabilized farmers, and shifted institutional purchasing habits. This year, the program was not funded. And as a result, students miss the chance to build lifelong food memories rooted close to home. And still, we are not retreating. Together, we are building a foundation of generational health. Generational health is the long game. It is the work of ensuring that today’s third grader doesn’t just eat a fresh apple; but grows up expecting apples from Michigan orchards in their cafeteria. It is ensuring that a teen doesn’t just volunteer at the market; but understands zoning laws, farm bills, and supply chains well enough to challenge them. This is the foundation of our theory of change. We build generational health by shaping habits early and reinforcing them often; through initiatives like our Teen Leadership Program, where young people gain the skills and critical lens to navigate and influence the food system; through field trips to our urban farm and incubator kitchen, where learning is rooted in soil; through Farm to School programming that normalizes local procurement; and through Power of Produce (POP) Club, where children practice agency by choosing fresh food for themselves. This is how we shift from reactive nutrition work to regenerative nutrition culture. We do this by pairing conversations about Food as Medicine, dietary guidelines, and eating real foods, with: An insistence that farmers are part of the prescription. Guidelines that align with affordability and access. Understanding that real foods need to be reachable, culturally meaningful, and dignified. Nutrition is not simply about what’s on a plate. It is about who has the right to thrive. This National Nutrition Month, I invite you to see nutrition not as an individual burden, but as a collective project that treats fresh food not as charity, but as infrastructure. We are cultivating a community where children expect fresh produce, where farmers are stable and respected, and where health is inherited as legacy. That is generational health. And that is the future we are growing together. In solidarity, Julius P.S. Check out the FoodCorps Policy Action Map or sign up for our Farm to School Newsletter if you’re interested in building generational health.

Queen Mother Audley Moore & Reparations Through Land and Food

By Julius Buzzard • February 25, 2026

Long before reparations entered mainstream conversation, Queen Mother Audley Moore was clear: justice required land, resources, and self-determination; not symbolic gestures. A descendant of enslaved people, Moore spent decades organizing for reparations rooted in material reality. She understood that stolen labor was tied to stolen land, and that food insecurity was not accidental; it was engineered . Moore advocated for land redistribution, cooperative economics, and community-controlled food systems as necessary steps toward repair. Her vision aligns directly with modern food sovereignty movements: returning control of food, land, and labor to the people most harmed by their removal . This is not history; it is instruction. Growing Hope’s work exists within this continuum. From urban farming to food hubs, from youth leadership to market access, we are building the kinds of systems Moore demanded, systems that repair harm by restoring agency. Food sovereignty is reparations in practice. And the work is unfinished.

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.

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