In Requiem for Detroit they mentioned Detroit was a forerunner in urban Agriculture.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has defined urban agriculture as:
“ [A]n industry that produces, processes and markets food and fuel, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city, or metropolis, on land and water dispersed throughout the urban and peri-urban area, applying intensive production methods, using and reusing natural resources and urban wastes to yield a diversity of crops and livestock.
In my searching travels, I came across the organisations; Earthworks urban farm, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Gleaners Community Food Bank.
The Capuchin Soup kitchen was started in the depression of 1929, The Capuchins traditionally give food from their kitchen to all the needy who come to the monastery door, the need was so great in 1929, they recruited people to collect food from local farms and this began the Capuchin Soup Kitchen which still runs to this day.
The services provided by the Capuchin Soup Kitchen:
- 2,000 hot meals are frequently served each day
- About 300,000 pounds of food distributed per month to families
- About 30,000 articles of clothing given to per month
- More than 500 pieces of furniture and appliances given to families each month
- Showers and a change of clothing for up to 30 homeless and poorly housed persons per day
- Jefferson House, a substance abuse treatment program servicing up to 12 indigent men
- A children's library and art therapy studio serving up to 800 children per month
- A 25,000 square foot urban farm project
Earthworks Urban Farm
Earthworks urban farm was started in 1997 by Brother Rick Samyn, who felt the Capchin soup kitchen needed to start a community garden to help supply the soup kitchen, the first garden being on a small plot of land near the St Bonaventure Monastery. In 1999, the garden expanded onto lots at the new site for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. After years of soil regeneration the farm planted its first crop in 2001. The success of the Earthworks expansion was the Soup Kitchen's collaboration with Gleaners Community Food Bank.
The food bank was started by Gene Gonya.
In 1977, Gene chose to leave the Jesuit Community and continue his mission of community service as a lay person of the Catholic Church. In April of 1977, he co-founded Gleaners Community Food Bank, renting the first floor of a warehouse on Detroit's near-eastside, a stone's throw from the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. The food bank was founded to solicit surplus food, store it safely, and distribute it to agencies that are the direct providers to the hungry of our communities. The food bank could now accept donations such as truckloads of produce from Gene's family farm and "bank" it for small or large organizations serving the community, since none of these service agencies could accept such large donations.
Images
1. Capuchin monks tending to the garden
2. Back of the St Bonaventure Monastery
3. Earthworks garden
4. Opening of the Gleaners Community Food Bank 1977
Links
