Detroit’s Grant-Funded Commercial Kitchen Beats Blight

A grant-funded commercial kitchen in Brightmoor can fight blight and teach other communities how to get a food-based micro-economy up and running.

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DETROIT, MICH. -- A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant-funded commercial kitchen in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit opened in late April 2016. It is encouraging healthy eating in a blight-speckled neighborhood a few miles from the closest market, and it is helping the neighborhood’s farmers, bakers and makers earn a living.

On one hand, Brightmoor has created a community space with a cafe and nutrition education for families, according to the Neighbors Building Brightmoor February newsletter. But on the other, it’s created a co-operative that ensures produce grown and harvested in the neighborhood’s gardens, known as the Farmway, becomes marketable products like pickled vegetables and jams, according to CityLab.

Without a commercial kitchen that adheres to local Board of Health requirements, entrepreneurs capable of creating a local food-based micro-economy, like those of the Farmway’s, are unable to get business off the ground.

Enter Detroit Kitchen Connect to advise on navigating the permitting landscape, and Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to support the cause.

When we grow things here and make things here, we create jobs here in Michigan,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow in her USDA grants announcement. “Local food hubs and farmers markets connect families and small businesses with local farmers, which makes it easier to buy Michigan-grown fruits and vegetables. We all know buying local is a win for our economy.”

The dividends of such a project are many--from increasing community redevelopment and economic development to improving public health and decreasing crime. The Detroit neighborhood has shown that one grant-funded commercial kitchen can tie all that together.

So what was Brightmoor’s recipe?

  1. In late 2014, with an initial crowdfunding campaign, the collective purchased a 7,000 sq. ft. building for $18,000 at a foreclosure auction. The building had three store fronts and enough space for the grant-funded commercial kitchen, cold storage, market area and classroom. The collective’s Indiegogo campaign generated $10,000.
  2. The Oprah Winfrey Network featured Brightmoor’s youth garden leader and community activist, Riet Schumack. The following year, Huffington Post did, too.
  3. In October 2015, USDA awarded Neighbors Building Brightmoor a $99,000 Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant for its $72,500 match. That resulted in a new roof and exterior, and seed money for the additional equipment needed to complete the kitchen.
  4. Then in January 2016, a Patroncity crowdsourcing campaign generated $30,000, with a $30,000 state match, to complete the renovation.
  5. Good old fashioned volunteer elbow grease--tiling, drywall and painting--accomplished as community service, finished the kitchen.

Learn more about applying for USDA LFPP grants.

Watch the crowdfunding video that leveraged the final state matching grants:

Andrea Fox is Editor of Gov1.com and Senior Editor at Lexipol. She is based in Massachusetts.

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