Whether you want to start growing your own food, join a community garden or find locally owned and grown food, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit wants to help.
The nonprofit Growing Hope recently launched an interactive map of community gardens, farms, locally owned grocery stores, food pantries and places to borrow or get free seeds, tools and other growing supplies on the eastern side of Washtenaw County.
The map details more than 100 free and cheap resources, mainly in and near Ypsilanti. The primary focus, Growing Hope’s Executive Director Julius Buzzard said, is making sure people have whatever tools, knowledge and space needed to grow their own food.
“The work that we do is really about building, investing in food poverty, investing in a local, thriving local food system where our community members can interact with food and the food system as intimately as they’re interested in or able to,” Buzzard said.
The interactive map was in the works for more than a year before going live in October, Buzzard said. The group incorporated feedback from growers in the community like if a garden is led by a person of color and or if the place is accessible to disabled persons.
There are over 30 community gardens mapped out. Users can click on each garden to find information about the garden and who to contact to get involved.
Community gardens are places where people can come and grow their own food. There are different systems from garden to garden, Buzzard said. Most commonly, a person will have at least one plot or garden bed where they can grow. Oftentimes, everyone with a plot will pay a membership fee to help maintain the land, Buzzard said.
Sometimes the system is more communal, he said, where the garden will be taken care of by everybody that uses it and each of them will get some of the harvest throughout the season.
“So much of our community doesn’t have any agency of the land that they occupy because they’re renters or they’re in an apartment or low-income housing or something else (like) ordinances,” Buzzard said. “So helping people find places to be able to grow food, I think that that’s a call we often get.”
For those who need gardening tools or other supplies to get started either at a community garden or their own homes, there are also spots to get tools, seeds and other supplies.
For instance, the Ypsilanti District Library offers free vegetable, flower and herb seeds to the community. At the end of the season, gardeners can return saved or unused seeds. Tool libraries – like those at the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti libraries or the West Willow Tool Lending Shed – allow community members to borrow tools for free.
Although the map is broken up into categories like educational resources, farms, groceries and supplies, users can also search keywords to find the type of resources they’re looking for.
To keep it up-to-date, people are encouraged to let the group know if there are resources or information they believe should be added to the tool via a feedback form online below the map, Buzzard said.
While the map is mainly limited to the Ypsilanti-area, Buzzard hopes they can expand county-wide. He wants to build a “network” of growers and resources by creating a single central tool where people can find fresh produce and gardens.
“What the core mission is about is building food sovereignty and investing in a community of growers that is taking agency over the work that they’re doing for themselves, for their community and one another,” he said.
Whether you want to start growing your own food, join a community garden or find locally owned and grown food, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit wants to help.
The nonprofit Growing Hope recently launched an interactive map of community gardens, farms, locally owned grocery stores, food pantries and places to borrow or get free seeds, tools and other growing supplies on the eastern side of Washtenaw County.
The map details more than 100 free and cheap resources, mainly in and near Ypsilanti. The primary focus, Growing Hope’s Executive Director Julius Buzzard said, is making sure people have whatever tools, knowledge and space needed to grow their own food.
“The work that we do is really about building, investing in food poverty, investing in a local, thriving local food system where our community members can interact with food and the food system as intimately as they’re interested in or able to,” Buzzard said.
The interactive map was in the works for more than a year before going live in October, Buzzard said. The group incorporated feedback from growers in the community like if a garden is led by a person of color and or if the place is accessible to disabled persons.
There are over 30 community gardens mapped out. Users can click on each garden to find information about the garden and who to contact to get involved.
Community gardens are places where people can come and grow their own food. There are different systems from garden to garden, Buzzard said. Most commonly, a person will have at least one plot or garden bed where they can grow. Oftentimes, everyone with a plot will pay a membership fee to help maintain the land, Buzzard said.
Sometimes the system is more communal, he said, where the garden will be taken care of by everybody that uses it and each of them will get some of the harvest throughout the season.
“So much of our community doesn’t have any agency of the land that they occupy because they’re renters or they’re in an apartment or low-income housing or something else (like) ordinances,” Buzzard said. “So helping people find places to be able to grow food, I think that that’s a call we often get.”
For those who need gardening tools or other supplies to get started either at a community garden or their own homes, there are also spots to get tools, seeds and other supplies.
For instance, the Ypsilanti District Library offers free vegetable, flower and herb seeds to the community. At the end of the season, gardeners can return saved or unused seeds. Tool libraries – like those at the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti libraries or the West Willow Tool Lending Shed – allow community members to borrow tools for free.
Although the map is broken up into categories like educational resources, farms, groceries and supplies, users can also search keywords to find the type of resources they’re looking for.
To keep it up-to-date, people are encouraged to let the group know if there are resources or information they believe should be added to the tool via a feedback form online below the map, Buzzard said.
While the map is mainly limited to the Ypsilanti-area, Buzzard hopes they can expand county-wide. He wants to build a “network” of growers and resources by creating a single central tool where people can find fresh produce and gardens.
“What the core mission is about is building food sovereignty and investing in a community of growers that is taking agency over the work that they’re doing for themselves, for their community and one another,” he said.
The map can be viewed on Growing Hope’s website.