September 9, 2011
Greening Detroit: Spirit of Hope Urban Farm Brings Bounty to the Motor City
September/October 2011
http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/food-gardens/greening-detroit-spirit-of-hope-urban-farm.aspx
By Kelli B. Kavanaugh
The Spirit of Hope gardeners built raised beds out of used tires—one of many low-tech ways the group salvages waste and saves money.
Photo By Cybelle Codish
Spirit of Hope is one of many groups in the city transforming languishing, abandoned city plots into bountiful community gardens. Here neighbors and volunteers grow bulbous garlic, robust broccoli, juicy peaches and plums, rich collard greens and shapely heirloom tomatoes. The farm is also home to a turkey, two dozen chickens, a handful of ducks and three beehives.
Fearless Leaders
The farm can best be classified as a loose farming collective, but if it has a leader, it’s Kathleen Brennan. She started her first community garden in 1987 and has since gardened in several Detroit neighborhoods. She was inspired to build the Spirit of Hope garden through volunteer work she did far from her hometown, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “After Katrina hit, I went down to help and wound up being a first responder,” Brennan says. “For a few years, a couple of my friends and I would go down for extended stays and help out. We formed a nonprofit with some other relief workers called United Peace Relief. After a couple years, my friends and I started to notice that New Orleans and Detroit look a lot alike. We made a commitment to come back to Detroit and help people at home,” she says.
Although she professes no strong adherence to doctrine or dogma, Brennan knew the Spirit of Hope church’s empty lot next door to her home would be an ideal location for the project because “without a primary house, it’s still illegal to garden on an empty lot,” she says. “Here, I knew the city couldn’t move me.”
She had become friends with the pastor over the years, and he gave the project his blessing. In autumn of 2007, she and a group of other gardeners planted their first crops, and “we’ve been at it ever since,” Brennan says.
Gardeners and volunteers are drawn to the officially sanctioned space as a safe spot to grow food. “Last year, we logged more than 2,000 volunteer hours. I’m not even sure how many volunteers that is,” Brennan says. “We do a lot, and we get a lot of help. We have groups of youth who come to our gardens in the summer as part of their community service for school.”
Spirit of Hope Church facilitates other community engagement activities that overlap with the garden, including Sunshine Community Preschool. The preschool students all are tasked with nurturing their own teeny-tiny garden plot, each cleverly housed in a repurposed milk crate. Other schools, many from suburban communities, spend a day or a week working in the garden while, in turn, Brennan spends some time in their classrooms teaching the kids about growing food. “The kids love greens!” Brennan says. “And they love broccoli, cabbage, cherries, tomatoes—even the ones that aren’t red. Last year, I got them to eat fancy lettuces they had never seen before. They even started asking for them at snack time.”
And it’s not just children and volunteers that Spirit of Hope educates. “Even with people walking by, we’ll talk about good food,” Brennan says. “Some people get it, some people don’t.” But with rising costs and limited access to fresh food, healthy eating and medicinal herbs are likely the best preventive medicine many Detroiters are going to get. “If someone says, ‘My digestive system is all messed up,’ I’ll say, ‘Here’s some mint, make a pot of tea.’”
Hope Springs
In addition to its work educating children and the community, Spirit of Hope gives back in an even more tangible way: A quarter of the garden’s output goes to a local food pantry that helps stock 160 pantries a month—last year, it amounted to more than 3,000 pounds of fresh produce. Another quarter goes to the gardeners—there’s a core group of about five to 10—and the remaining half is sold at local farmer’s markets.
To ensure that the food they eat, sell and donate is healthy, farmers in the middle of the city need to be concerned with soil quality. Spirit of Hope avoids contamination issues by building raised beds filled with clean dirt, a solution that can cost upwards of $50 a bed. To save some cash, Brennan and her team construct theirs out of used tires laid out in a circular pattern. It turns out this has an unforeseen benefit: “The tires collect heat during the day and release that heat into the beds at night,” she says. The result? More warmth for tender seedlings, giving them a little boost when they are at their most delicate.
Spirit of Hope uses other simple, inexpensive technologies to offer comfort and aid to gardeners and volunteers, and to demonstrate low-tech, energy-saving options. Group members built a solar shower so they could better host overnight volunteers (the church has no shower). The garden often holds garden party fundraisers, and they built a cob oven to cook some of the food. Brennan says people love to watch the simple technology at work. They also use inexpensive techniques to maximize plant production such as a rainwater catchment system that delivers irrigation to plant roots.
From Blight to Bounty
Spirit of Hope isn’t alone in reclaiming vacant land, a resource Detroit is rich with. Current estimates suggest that a full third of the city’s sprawling 140 square miles is empty. The Detroit Garden Resource Program—a partnership between the nonprofit The Greening of Detroit, Michigan State University, Detroit Agriculture Network and Earthworks Urban Farm, one of the city’s most prolific and established community gardens—provides services to more than 1,000 community gardens, ranging from a typical household plot to schoolyard corners to multiple vacant lots.
Spirit of Hope fills what used to be four residential parcels, and it’s nowhere near the largest in the city. Brennan says that the urban gardening community is tight-knit, and organizers and volunteers feed off one another’s energy and dedication. “It’s technically illegal, so it’s good to hang out with other people doing illegal stuff,” she laughs. On a more serious note, she continues, “For the city as a whole, the whole gardening movement is good. It gets people active, healthier.”
Lest she come off as some kind of Pollyanna, Brennan admits gardening is hard work. “There have been days when I wanted to walk away. But there’s nothing better than, in late summer, to come into the garden and find a place to sit. Being surrounded by so much beauty rejuvenates the soul and inspires the spirit.”
Detroiter Kelli B. Kavanaugh has been writing, mostly about her city, since the mid-’90s. Her work has appeared in numerous local publications and a couple of national ones, including Metropolis and Women’s Adventure. She co-owns Wheelhouse Detroit, a bike shop located on the Detroit River.
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February 6, 2010
Detroit Urban Sustainability Training
http://www.detroiturbansustainabilitytraining.org/#q1
5 Ten Day Workshops Summer 2010
May 16th to 25th, 2010
June 6th to 15th, 2010
July 5th to 14th, 2010
July 18th to 27th, 2010
August 2nd to 11th, 2010
In the ten day workshop attendees will; tour urban gardens and farms, tour the largest "Open Air" Farmer's Market in America, visit small neighborhood farmer's markets, tour outdoor art installations, local art galleries, do hands-on workshops, attend lectures on sustainable practices and will, work along side of Urban Farmers, Gardeners, Artists, Community Activists, Holistic Healers, and Awesome Detroiters making a difference in their communities while learning sustainable skills.
Cob building
Natural Plaster
Water Catchment Systems
CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture)
Guerilla Gardening
Guerilla Bioremediation
BIM (Beneficial Indigenous Microbes)
Intro to Permaculture
Working with other community activists, Holistic Healers and local businesses
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January 31, 2010
This blog will chronicle the architectural installation Ice House Detroit throughout its many stages: fundraising, architectural installation, disassembly of the house, and transformation of the property once the project is over. The weather is getting colder and the sun is on the retreat, so we are back to icing! Our plan is 24 hour daily icing all week long, with 59 hours under our belt so far. Blogging with cold hands, but the house looks amazing.
Become a fan of the Ice House Detroit project on Facebook.
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January 18, 2010
Detroit Waldorf School
For Immediate Release
Contact: Melanie Reiser, Outreach Director
313-822-0300; melaniereiser@detroitwaldorf.org
Detroit Waldorf School Presents
“Serve Your Community”
Monday, January 18, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
at Detroit Waldorf School in Indian Village
RSVP Requested
Parents and school-age children can come for a morning to help others in need. This family and community activity will include gathering at Detroit Waldorf School for a simple continental breakfast, then a short drive to work with United Peace Relief Detroit, and then a return trip to the school for families to go on their way. This month we will make soup, sandwiches and sort clothes (@ 4203 Lincoln, Detroit, 48208), then head near the Neighborhood Service Organization to serve the food and distribute the clothes. In the first two weeks of January we will collect the following items for donation; warm outer clothing: hats, mittens gloves, socks, boots, blankets, pillows, overthrows, tarps, sheets, for those in transient situations; we will also collect non-perishable canned goods, peanut butter, jelly & soft sliced white bread.
The January “Serve Your Community” event is the sixth installment of a monthly community service series scheduled at Detroit Waldorf School for the 2009-2010 academic year. The local organization being served will vary month to month. Future volunteer work will include support for Gleaners Food Bank, the Greening of Detroit and Earthworks, to name a few. The event will be held the 3rd Saturday of the month (with the exception of this month), began in July, and will continue through the 2009-2010 school year.
The continental breakfast at Detroit Waldorf is free of charge, and the event is open to all families, whether they attend the school or not. RSVP is requested to ensure enough food is available and so families know who we will be supporting. All children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult who will remain with them for the event.
Detroit Waldorf School will be hosting several series for the 2009-2010 school year, free of charge, for all families. Other series include quarterly parent-child cooking workshops and Friday family fun nights. “These events have a dual purpose,” says Administrator Brooks. “They give us the opportunity to support families in our community and they help families by providing free, wholesome activities they can do together.”
Celebrating its 43rd year, the Detroit Waldorf School is part of the international Waldorf School movement, which comprises over 900 schools in 83 countries. Located in Historic Indian Village, just three miles east of downtown Detroit, DWS is housed in a stately historic structure designed by Albert Kahn. Situated on four acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, the school provides a warm and inviting environment that nurtures growth, learning, and creativity by focusing on each student’s developmental needs. DWS offers enrollment in nursery school through eighth grade. Its interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizes analytical, creative, and critical thinking, as well as self-discipline, initiative, and reverence for the natural world.
The Detroit Waldorf School is located in Historic Indian Village at 2555 Burns Ave., Detroit, MI 48214. For more information, call 313-822-0300 or visit www.detroitwaldorf.org.
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November 28, 2009
Faith, Hope, and Charity Farms Needs List
Faith, Hope and Charity Farms makes me sound like a Holy Roller and really I'm not; though I do have faith, hope and charity in my heart. The name just kinda evolved and it all started with me putting HOPE on the fence of Spirit Farm 2007...
I started Spirit Farm with a shovel and ten dollars in my pocket and a promise from Spirit of Hope that they would help me in anyway they could. Today I have Spirit Farm, FAITH Farm: food Action in the Hood, The Manistique St Healthy Soil Project, Miss Miriam's Garden, and the Grassroots Garden along with a handful of very awesome volunteers that I thank the universe for everyday. Today I have about 10 shovels, and 20 dollars in my pocket
A lot of things we need for the farms and gardens really could be re-claimed materials or recycled things we do not need new stuff. We are all for Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling, in our quest to help Re-build, Re-store, and Revision Detroit; at least our little corner of it.
Spirit Farm:
Chicken Coops
Chickens
Lend-to for goats
goats (pygmy goats female)
Fencing
Hoop House
Shed
loppers
pruning shears
paint
posts
4 3 1/2 ft. Raised beds and the materials to build them
plastic bins
55 gal plastic food grade barrels
Wood chips
Plastic spray bottles
Castile Soap
Volunteers ready to go in the spring
FAITH Farm:
Fencing
Materials for raised beds
a Lend-to
a Potting Shed
Compost
Mushroom logs
mushroom spores/spawn
and volunteers ready to go in the spring
Mainstique St. Healthy Soil Project:
Fencing
Compostable materials:
Coffee grounds
Veggie Scraps
brown paper bags
worms
compost tumbler
pitch forks
a shed and lock
Native plants
Miss Miriam's Garden:
a very patient volunteer to work with and learn from Miss Miriam. She's 91, and the toughest gardener I know!
Grassroots Garden:
Materials for raised beds
Compost
a water storage system
And volunteers ready to go in the spring
If you have any of these materials you would like to donate, they can be dropped off at Spirit Farm or FAITH Farm.
If you would like to volunteer write or call me. There are things to do in the winter as well as in the spring.
If you'd like to help but do not have time or materials please consider hitting the Paypal Button on my wall on the left hand side, even if it's just a dollar; it all adds up!
The passed growing season Spirit Farm was able to give away hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food to the Community Food Pantry Program at Spirit of Hope and to locals. We hosted many groups of youth this passed season and helped educate them to the needs of the city and the overall environment.
FAITH Farm was able to produce some things for the E. Warren Ave. Farmers Market to help rebuild a local foods network. And surprised the east side neighborhood that you can make something outta nothing!
Grassroots Garden inspiring the community even if it's has not had it's first growing season yet!
Miss Miriam's Garden produced food for the Food Pantry as well and food for our volunteers.
Healthy Soil Project is on it's way to making compost.
We have some other projects in the works that I'll write about at another time
Thank you!
Peace, love, and farming,
Kate/tuka
ps. Thanks for looking in on me
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October 12, 2009
Making a difference in Detroit
DAVID JOSAR
The Detroit News
Kate Devlin tends to one of her gardens on Manistique in Detroit.
Devlin has been buying plots of land in Detroit and turning them into gardens.
(David Guralnick / The Detroit News)
"There are success stories here, but they may be hard to find," said Tom Goddeeris, executive director of the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp. His oldest son, Andrew, is a freshman at the University of Michigan, using a Detroit Compact scholarship to pay his tuition.
The bad stories are easy to find in Detroit. More than a quarter are unemployed. The school district's graduation rate is dismal. Violent crime is among the highest in the nation.
But the good stories are there, and a common thread among many is persistence, pluck and patience in navigating the city's sometimes cumbersome bureaucracy.
"If you want something done, you often have to do it yourself here," explained Kate Devlin, who, although she doesn't own it,boarded up a vacant building herself in North Corktown and is waiting to buy it at the tax foreclosure auction rather than waiting for the city to bring wrecking crews.
It isn't easy. Sometimes, residents have to get creative.
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October 10, 2009
In Detroit, our work with the homeless, low-income families, and the unemployed continues. Presently we are helping feed 40 families fresh vegetables out of the garden. We are working hard to create "Green" jobs, through our work in creating gardens the we are hoping to turn into CSA's, alternative energy suppliers, and sustainable city living educators. Living below the line for so long we have learned to do more with less and in the process picked up some "Green Skills" we feel confident enough to start holding classes.
We help supply the community closet at Spirit of Hope with much needed clothing for all age groups. The Closet is open during Soup Kitchen on Saturdays until 1:30pm. There are a lot of people who have stopped by to volunteer this spring, summer, and fall to help make this happen. We work on a shoestring so volunteers help make it happen.
United Peace Relief Detroit continues to try and rise money to transform their bus into a mobile emergency resource unit. As a way to rise money, have fuel for the bus and to create jobs, Jean Wilson of UPRD is working over-time to build a Waste Veggie Oil (WVO) Bio-diesel Plant.
Both UPR and UPRD would like to bring the "Books to Kids" Project here to Detroit but at the present time we are in need of more dedicated volunteers to help make that happen. It's a much needed program here in Detroit.
Detroit is in the national news a lot these days and though much of what is being written about is true, many of the stories are just re-hashed stories that have been being written over and over, the same story.
We hear and see other stories the national press do not see even if some of them have moved into a house in West Village. We are going to make much more of an effort to tell some of those stories here.
In Detroit, we are working hard to up-lift our neighborhoods and help individuals and families in anyway we can. If you are in the area or are coming to the area and would like to volunteer, or have goods or services you would like to donate, would like to make a cash donation please contact us.
Thank you,
In Peace,
Kate Devlin and Jean Wilson
UPR and UPRD
http://www.facebook.com/l/fec81;313.598.3720 or
http://www.facebook.com/l/fec81;313.377.4203
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July 14,2009
Report on the urban farming in Detroit. Thanks Kate!
0 the designers, the designers are the people who help plan, build and work the farm
1 the building or buildings that are near the Farm ( in our case we have a church, a school, and homes)
2 the gardens, we have raised beds for our gardens
3 orchards, we have the start of a small orchard on the back of our lot
4 field crops, we do not have field crops per se but we do have the patches of wheat that pop up from using straw, but we choose to add Native Grasses to the farm since we do not have the space to grow field crops.
5 wild zone, our wild zone is natural green fence made out of Japanese Knot Weed. Japanese Knot Weed is an invasive which we might have done away with but there are about 12 pheasants who live there from time to time and one wild cat.
6 the community that surrounds the farm. For our Community we are trying to make the gardens as beautiful as possible, have art throughout the farm, and build a pocket park on our fourth lot in the front of the wild flower field. It is also our hope to have an active bulletin board in that pocket park.
There is a small group of regular volunteers at Spirit Farm. We have groups of youth that come during the summer to help out. Without volunteers this project would never happen. We love volunteers.
The regular volunteer hours are:
Weds 4-8pm except the 3rd Weds of the Month when we head down to Eastern Market at 6:45 to attend Detroit Abides Movie Night in Shed 5 of the Eastern Market.
Sat. 2-5pm
We are available to host groups of volunteers with some notice at other times not listed.
Because we never know what Mother Nature has in store for us you can catch us there almost anytime. I personally have been known to camp out there while working on projects.
In the coming years we would like to have season extending abilities with hoop houses and a bio-shelter so that we can farm all year long. Yes, there are people growing in Michigan all year long and we hope to do the same.
All of these things take time, money, and people power if you can help us in anyway please feel free to contact us here or in person at the farm. Any questions write us. Thank you!
You can keep up with the urban farming in Detroit on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=59332&id=1634148591#/perma.detroit
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July 6, 2009
UPR Detroit has been busy helping to insure the hungry get a good meal!
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June 4, 2009
Join United Peace Relief-Detroit for 24-Hour Community Spacewalk.
United Peace Relief-Detroit will be one of the non-profits participating in the 24-Hour Community Spacewalk Detroit. Volunteers will gather to paint the UPR-Detroit bus and help with donating food and clothing to the community. Volunteers are welcome to join. See the press release below:
** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
Contact: Warrior Girl
Telephone: 248.885.4530
Website: http://www.spacewalk.org
E-mail: info@spacewalk.org
24 Hour Community SPACEWALK - DETROIT
Area Creatives Utilize Talent to Draw Interest and Give to Detroit
24 hours of art, prayer, and a feast for the homeless to uplift the City.
June 1, 2009
homeless, with clothing, showers, shoes, eyeglasses and more all gifted to the needy. A number of area churches will also show support with different types of prayer services, one notable contribution comes from the Church of the Messiah which will hold a Health Fair and prayer service prior to the events. Many other area churches will be holding 24 hour prayer services during this walk.
The event will kick off at noon on June 13th at the Belle Isle Fishing Area with an Opening Ceremony. A highlight of the ceremony is a Nigerian ceremonial performance of collecting messages of felicity for the city from guests. These wishes of abundance, radiance and happiness for Detroit will set the event in motion. At this time guests can also enjoy a unique kite flying display.
Throughout the 24 Hours, Spacewalkers will journey throughout the city on an Odyssey that highlights important monuments and points of interest. They will experience various ideas, and follow the 24 Hour Superhero Soap Opera, "Warrior Girl's Baffling Bubbling Bailout." The primary movement of Spacewalk, after having moved throughout the night, will be complete by 9AM. At that time, food will be served to the homeless, as provided by a number of generous people and organizations local to the Detroit Metro Area.
We need volunteers for preparation, cooking, catering, and food service during the event. We have received a donation for the food budget, and can still use more to truly make this a feast. We have quite a number of people that will already help, we need those who can help prepare and deliver the food. For those who are looking to do more, after the event, please join in a parade of Prayer from 3-5PM on Sunday, June 14 to begin at Campus Martius. This event is open to others who are interested in sharing their gifts and talent by joining the group for any portion of this time. Participation from the community to support by viewing the event is also welcome.
There is also a unique call for plein air (open air) artists to join the festivities by painting during the event. For those interested, please contact us in advance so that materials may be purchased for you. All involved artwork will be sold at auction on a subsequent date with a percentage of the proceeds supporting Spacewalk related charities. This group also has an interest in involving Photographers and Videographers. Visit the blog at Spacewalk.org or the Facebook.com group for more information.
For those with an ability to financially contribute to this initiative, proceeds will go toward the cost of a shower trailer to assist the homeless.
# # #
If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, please call Warrior
Girl directly at 248.885.4530 or e-mail her at info@spacewalk.org. General information is also
available at Spacewalk.org.
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May 27, 2009
Spirit Farm Wish list
Spirit Farm Wish List May 28th, 2009
15 ydsTop Soil
50 yds Compost
10 yds Pea Gravel
15yds Sand
20 bales of Straw
50 yds of Wood chips
Lumber for various projects re-used is good if untreated
Wire fencing
Gates
Fence posts
Chicken wire
a Chicken Coop
a lean-do shed
a storage shed
Soil admendments: Lime, green sand, vermiculite, perlite,
milk crates
Native plants, root stock
bulletin board
garden art
volunteers
garden tools; weed wacker, wheel barrow, shovles, good pair of loopers, good pair of pruners,
and more volunteers
a new used or just new truck
an ice cream truck diesel
Since we're wishing...a windmill
Thank You!
Spirit Farm Gardeners
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March 15, 2009
Update on Detroit Sunflower Project:
Those of us who wish to get started we now have permission to do any and all lots that are in Corktown. We can do bioremediation projects, grow sunflowers, wildflowers, and build re-build, restore native prairies fields.
Why is permission important is that to just do "Guerrilla Gardening" maybe fun but your efforts in doing that maybe never get to establish themselves when the plow crews come through a neighborhood. All that Greater Corktown Development asks is that we do a patch at the corner of Rosa Parks and I75 to greet people as they come to visit Corktown.
This Detroit Sunflower Project has just really taken me by surprise. It is an idea whose time has come. Detroit Synergy is considering taking this on as a project and they request that there be a project leader. Although I'd like to be the project leader I really can not do that by myself. I am already involved in two important Urban Agricultural project that are also important. During the growing season I'm busy which I have to start getting ready for. I'm working on developing educational urban agricultural for kids from our preschool up to high school kids, then grow food for our community food programs, and I direct the development of our small farm. I have a new East side project also by a school that I'm just beginning to develop for a market garden that I'm hoping to employ myself and a few others. So what I'm getting at is that I can help someone be the leader for this project but I can not do it myself and I need someone or a few people to step up and commit to helping lead this massive project.
Please someone help me build a team of leaders for this project.
I am starting to mark off my lots in Corktown to be developed on Monday afternoon at 2:30pm I'm starting with the lot next door to Spirit Farm on MLK and Trumbull and I'm going to work my way down the block which is about 4 lots. Anyone is welcomed to join me. I'll be there rain or shine.
Our first meeting will be Sat March 21, @ 2pm at Spirit Farm in the playground or church basement depending on the weather. By then we will know if we can expand this project beyond Corktown out into the rest of the city.
Thank you everyone who has been supportive and committed to making this work.
Peace,
tuka
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March 14, 2009
Home 4 Less Community Art Project
This idea was conceived to work with artists who are homeless and or living in a treatment or youth facility. I was recruiting at the soup kitchen then saturday classes started for me and I have not been able to work on it like I would have liked. Then Project Sunflower popped into my life and further distracted me. It's an important project so that's okay, but that leaves me with few artists for this project. If you know an artist living on the edge or are an artist living on the edge please share this info or send artists my way. Non-profits were suppose to help me get art supplies but I have not seen any show up yet so we will be using a lot of recycled stuff.
Home 4 Less
Community Art Project
For Artists Living on the Edge
A series of workshops to produce an installation exploring the themes of Shelter, Home, Community Space, Green Economy, and Self to be shown at Wayne State University. Artists will also produce art to be sold on the internet and community events.
Workshops held Wednesdays 12noon to 6pm for six weeks @
Spirit of Hope Church
1519 Martin Luther King Blvd.
@ Trumbull Ave.
Detroit, Mi, 48208
March 11th, 2009 week 1 Shelter
March 18th, 2009 week 2 Home
March 25th, 2009 week 3 Community Space
April 1st, 2009 week 4 Green Economy
April 8th, 2009 week 5 Self
April 15th, 2009 week 6 Finish all art projects
April 16, 2009 install installation @ WSU
April 17th, 2009 Art Opening, show and sell
Workshop Weds. Artists will be provided one hot meal, art supplies, access to community clothes closet, along with whatever swag comes our way from supporting non-profits and individuals.
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March 12, 2009
Project Sunflower update From Detroit:
First, I would like to thank everyone who has embraced this project and are planning on volunteering in one way or another. Thank You!
Greater Corktown Development gave their full support of this project and has given us permission to do any and all vacant lots in Corktown. Their only request is that we do this large field at the corner of Rosa Parks and I75. One of the entrances into Corktown to welcome people into the neighborhood. This project is massive. We need a game plan and there are things we need to consider in doing this. The Detroit Permaculture Group has been brainstorming some on issues and concerns for this project. I think it would be very helpful to continue brainstorming here so that when we come together we will pretty much have a plan of action in place.
Here are some of the questions and concerns that have been raised so far:
Till or no till approach?
How do we kill off things already growing in the fields?
Seeding or seedballing?
What do we use to mark off lots?
Concerns:
Making sure no invasive species are set loose that would upset our already fragile eco-system.
Being aware of the height and location of sunflowers so to not block drivers views.
Being aware not to plant high sunflowers in places were children walk to school in semi-abandon neighborhoods, which would be unsafe for them.
On March 29th we will be having a seedballing party @ 3pm @ Spirit Farm in the basement of the church. Materials needs: seeds. Spirit Farm has clay and compost but we would never turn down donations of more. Also on the 29th @ 1pm Spirit Farm will be holding our first garden meeting for volunteers for our project so if there are folks who want to get involved in our project please attend the meeting, or write to me and tell me how you want to be involved if you can not make the meeting.
Thank you, Everyone! Sunflower power to the people!
Peace,
tuka
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December 27, 2008
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December 08, 2008
Resource information website!
Julie's list (http://julieslist.homestead.com/) is a new and awesome resource website dedicated to helping people in Southeastern Michigan live a better life. This is the best place to go for resource help that we can find in the Detroit Area. Go Julie! UPR Detroit loves you! We are still looking for a web developer to help us get our own website up, so if you wish to spend a little time with the project, your labor will go to help people out that really need it these days.
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November 03, 2008
Home 4 Less art installation Detroit looking for artists!
Looking for Homeless Artists
Artists of all ages for art project which will be installed in WSU student hallway gallery and possibly another area art gallery. Artists will have opportunity to sell their work, via the art show, eBay, and etsy. Artists will attend at least one art opening featuring their work. Artists will work on their art in a warm safe environment for 6 to 8 hours, one day a week for 6 weeks, Artist will be served one meal, receive clean clothes, art supplies and other possible perks as they come in through donations.
The theme of this art project is Shelter, Home, Community Spaces, Green Economy, and Self; expressed through drawings, paintings, sculpture, collage, poetry, mixed mediums.
This project is open to all age artists who are homeless, living in a shelter or squat, or living in a treatment program. Open to All skill levels beginner to master levels. All the artist needs is a commitment to the project and a desire to create. This art project is being sponsored in part by Spirit of Hope Food Pantry, United Peace Relief Detroit, and WUS student gallery.
To be involved in this project as an artist or sponsor please contact:
Thank you,
Kate
amourcuisine@yahoo.com
313.598.3720
Or sign-up at Spirit of Hope soup kitchen on Saturdays 12noon to 1:30pm
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October 26, 2008
The Activists Gathered, Wow!
About 60 Community Activists gathered at Spirit of Hope Church in North Corktown, Detroit last night, representing dozens of non-profit grass-roots organizations. I can't remember all the groups there but some of them were; Trumbull Plex, The Matrix Theater, UPR Detroit, Detroit Summer, The Detroit Green Party, Critical Moment Media Group, Detroit Welfare Rights, Spirit Farm, Spirit Spit, Detroit Food Not Bombs, The Wobbly's, and many others.
People are ready to connect and get busy. A common theme from most of the speakers was that any real change for the working and middle-classes has come about through grass-roots actions. There was a lot of networking going on. It was truly a inspiring night.
There's a buzz about having the Detroit Activists Gathering on a regular basis; maybe seasonally, or twice a year.
I want to thank Spirit of Hope, UPR Detroit, and Critical Moment for hosting this event. Thank You, Jean, Ken, anad everyone else who worked so hard to make this event a success. Wow! Awesome night!
Okay, I really need to get back to writing about the farm. As those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know I've had a roller coaster ride of a time building this little urban farm in Detroit. It has not been easy. There have been plenty of times I just wanted to just drop the shovel and walk away. For every problem and hurdle I overcome, there are two more problems to deal with. But tonight at the activists gathering this young man came up to me and shook my hand and told me one of the most important nights of his life so far has been one night on a walk he wandered into my garden and went and sat in the middle of the spiral. While sitting there he had an awaking of some sort that has profoundly affected his life. He didn't get into the details but he was speaking from his heart so I know it was powerful. When we built the spiral garden I had in mind the meditative effects spiraling around the plants would create. Which I know this will sound insane but I learned it from a bee last year while I watched it spiral around the spiraling cucumber flowers gathering pollen. So that someone I never met before or even ever saw in the neighborhood would come up to me and tell me this, wow. Inspiring. I am just blown away by that, guess I will not be walking away from the farm anytime soon.
Soon there will be another farm in my neighborhood. The Spirit Farm will be in the heart of the Detroit farming community. How crazy does that sound? I am sure at one time as Detroit was developing there was a mix of city and farm and as we redevelop from the grass-roots up; there will continue to be new farms, gardens and more. I'm feeling it, Detroit!
Thanks for looking in.
Peace, love, and activism,
dk
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October 24, 2008
Homeless Shelters In Wayne County
CANTON HUMAN SERVICES CENTER 734.495-3074
SALVATION ARMY HARBOR LIGHT 800.ASHELTER
WAYNE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY 734.246.2280
STAPLES (ANN ARBOR/FAMILY) 734.761.7750
C.O.T.S. (DETROIT/FAMILY) 313.831.3777
W.C.F.C (WAYNE/FAMILY) 734.721.0590
SALVATION ARMY BOOTH CENTER (DETROIT/FAMILY) 313.361.6136
INTERIM HOUSE DETROIT/FAMILY) 313.861.5300
GENESIS HOUSE (DETROIT/FAMILY) 313.331.8990
SIMON HOUSE (DETROIT/HIV ONLY) 313.531.3400
S. OAKLAND SHELTER 248.546.6566
SAFEHOUSE (ANN ARBOR/DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) 734.995.5444
FIRST STEP (CANTON/DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) 1.888.453.5900
DAY HOUSE (DETROIT/DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) 313.963.4539
DETROIT RESCUE MISSION (SINGLE INDIVIDUALS) 313.993.6703
DETROIT RESCUE MISSION (TEEN MOMS) 313.993.6692
YMCA (DETROIT/SINGLE INDIVIDUALS) 313.267.5300
OASIS (DETROIT/MEN ONLY 313.868.1946
OZONE HOUSE (ANN ARBOR/MINORS) 734.662.2222
ST.PETERS INN (DETROIT/MINORS) 313.496.0938
FATHER PAT'S (ANN ARBOR/MINORS) 734.761.1440
SALVATION ARMY DENBY CENTER(MINORS) 313.537.2130
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October 20, 2008
Critical Moment and United Peace Relief Detroit present an…Activist Gathering
Saturday October 25th 5:00pm
$5 Suggested Donation
For organizations and individuals with ambitions to change the world! And for people looking for opportunities to heal and celebrate Detroit. Bring yourself and information about your ideas and projects. You may sign up for 5 minutes of podium time. There will be tables for your literature and/or things you want to sell to raise money for your organization. Free food served by the Wobbly Kitchen and Food Not Bombs.
Spirit of Hope Detroit 1519 Martin Luther King Detroit 48208 313.964.3113
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July 14, 2008
Charity pushes help on wheels
Group needs help turning old school bus into mobile outreach for Detroit homeless.
J.J. McCorvey / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- While many charities and nonprofits wait for the homeless to come to them, the United Peace Relief of Detroit plans to take food and clothing to the city's homeless. The group members plan to use a decommissioned school bus, purchased through a Web site, to help them aid the city's growing homeless population. Until then, however, the bus sits idle in the parking lot of the Spirit of Hope church, at Trumbull and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. At a time when charities are seeing lower donations, it has become increasingly difficult for Executive Director Jean Wilson's endeavor to reach fruition.
Inside the bus, old car seats and boxes sit where Wilson envisions a stove and stainless steel countertop. The space for a license plate is still bare, and much of the yellow school bus paint has crusted into a murky orange. Wilson said adding materials, insurance and permits from the city and health department to bring the bus up to code would cost about $30,000. There is only $69 in the group's bank account.
"We've been finding that food and clothing is easy to get," said Wilson. "People are willing to clean out their closets, but the only thing we haven't been able to get at all is money." The financial hardship may be the result of bleak times for the national and local economy. With Detroit's unemployment rate at a staggering 14.3 percent and gas prices still hovering above $4 per gallon, fledgling nonprofits are barely clinging to survival. "Pretty much all nonprofits are dependent on grants and donations," said Amanda Sternberg, coordinator of the Homeless Action Network of Detroit. "As the economy gets tougher, personal budgets get tighter. It's the smaller organizations that face the most difficulty."
According to Sternberg, while donations decrease, the number of people in need of service increases, which hits nonprofits from both sides. In January 2007, the action network found that there were approximately 18,000 homeless people living in Detroit, up from about 15,000 in 2005. "People are losing their jobs and homes, which is increasing the number of people who are going to these service providers," she said. While United Peace Relief attempts to raise funds for bus renovations by taking donations through Myspace.com/uprdetroit and hosting events such as wine tastings, its giving doesn't stop.
Members volunteer at numerous churches and institutes, such as the Neighborhood Service Organization, and Wilson, the self-professed "mama" of the organization, takes time from her work as a painter and drywall restorer to pick up donated goods from grocery stores and deliver them to those in need, using her own biodiesel-run van. Zaccaro's Market in midtown is one of the few that supply Wilson's operation. "We don't want food to be sitting when it should be eaten the next day," said Dave Armin-Parcelles, store manager. He said he's glad the store can donate to small local organizations like United Peace Relief, because larger organizations are "more selective" about what they accept and can take hours or days to pick up the food. When he calls Wilson every Tuesday, she's there in 10 minutes. "There's a lot of red tape with bigger organizations," he said. "She's doing a great job." Link, 39, who chose not to give his full name, has been homeless for about a month and depends on Wilson's stops to survive. "It definitely softens the blow," the Romulus native said. "It helps you get that vision back. Sometimes I seriously contemplate going back to doing crime."
Until the bus is renovated, Wilson is relying on people who believe in what the organization does, like Pastor Matthew Bode of the Spirit of Hope church, who allows her to keep the bus in the church parking lot. "I was excited about the possibilities of using it for good things in our neighborhood," Bode said of the bus. "UPR works in an area where people live in crisis on a regular basis."
United Peace Relief, spearheaded by her valiant efforts, has given away over $20,000 worth of food, but Wilson believes they could give more if the bus was fully operational. "I could just drive down the street, and people would know it's us," she said. "They'd say, 'Hey, they got something for us!' "
You can reach J.J. McCorvey at (313) 222- 2025 or jmccorvey@detnews.com.
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June 6, 2008
Wine and Jazz Benefit - United Peace Relief Detroit
TV Lounge, 2548 Grand River Ave
Wednesday, July 9th, 6PM - 9PM
Three of Detroit's newest visionaries join together in putting hope into action with a benefit for the newly born nonprofit, UPR Detroit. The event will take place at TV emerging as the hippest patio lounge in the city in conjunction with support from the just opened gourmet grocer, Zaccaro's. The event will offer a unique selection of cheeses and nosh complimented by wine hand-selected by local wine distributor, Joe Bruno. The Future Jazz Kartel will spin out the perfect summer evening sounds featuring the tag team efforts of DJ Gui LaFleur and Mark Szyamski.
This is the perfect way to unwind after work by indulging your senses while helping to re-direct our unique city. In looking at the recent disasters in China and Myanma (Burma) we feel sadness for political turmoil that only exacerbates these tragedies. Yet what did we learn of ourselves during Katrina? What did we learn of our own hometown after the riots? Grassroots organizations such as UPR Detroit provides rescue for those the system doesn't account for by supplying them with necessities while helping them to the resources that they need. The demands of our own culture often leaves us feeling overwhelmed and helpless so here is the PERFECT opportunity to blow off steam, or relax, and provide great help.
UPR Detroit serves the disenfranchised through action, not bureacracy and paperwork. The new mobile unit will, however, provide informational materials to the community it serves as part of their effort to connect people in need to the resources available. Providing clothing, food, information, the Relief Bus' primarily functions as a soup kitchen on wheels. While developing further abilities, the Bus relies greatly on the generousity of Zaccaro's who's regular food donations have allowed UPR Detroit to bring quality food to those who are often neglected as the "undeserving poor." Join us in a great atmostphere while we make a difference one at a time through food, dance, and compassion.
Wednesday, July 9, 6-9 PM, wine distributor Joe Bruno
Future Jazz Kartel Tag Team Jazz Djs Mark Szymanski and Gui LaFleur
TV Chuck Meadows, owner
Zaccaro's - Cheese and Fruit
United Peace Relief Detroit, orderves
$30
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April 10, 2008
From Detroit Metro Times
When food gets political, some become conscientious eaters
by Michael Jackman
4/9/2008
Who would have dreamed 10 years ago that food would be as political as it is today? Between genetically modified plants, rising oil costs driving prices skyward, and the glut of processed "foods," our food sources seem more insecure than ever. For most concerned families, it's a challenge to figure out what's on supermarket shelves and where it comes from. And a growing debate, driven by big-food critics such as Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan and even Prince Charles, rages beneath the placid surface of contemporary consumerism.
That debate is playing out in Detroit, where scores of people have mobilized in the inner city, not just to provide food to those who need it most, but to work for food education and what they commonly call "food security" — knowing that the food on your plate is affordable, fresh and healthful because you know where it came from. People seem more willing to listen to their conscience as well as their stomach.
Of course, Detroit's status as a meat-and-potatoes town isn't going anywhere soon. But a growing minority of people are hungry for fresh, affordable, "secure" food. They're likely to be vegetarian or vegan, or into raw foods. They put a premium on food that's organic, an heirloom variety, or grown locally. They're wary of oil-based agriculture and big food, often objecting even to unnecessary packaging or waste of any kind.
And the prime movers of this emerging culture are attuned to food in a political and often spiritual way. Listening to these people on the leading edge of food, some might think it all a bit far-fetched, but their point is well-taken: Our food systems are compromised, a basic human need is commodified, and we often can't be sure what we're eating anymore. And these people aren't grumbling — they're taking action, and they're excited about what's next.
You might get to thinking they're actually the pioneers of our 21st century food frontiers.
Sustainable-lifestyle training
Forty-five minutes into a vegan brunch class at Detroit Evolution Laboratory, you realize this is no ordinary "cooking" class. Sitting on stools in the sun-splashed kitchen near Eastern Market, a class is watching teacher Angela Kasmala whip up a vegan brunch, while her partner Gregg Newsom assists, expounding on the kitchen philosophy and brewing tea and coffee for the class. Not only is there little cooking involved, but the class also involves spontaneous, earnest discussions about food and the environment. Though your mouth will certainly water at the food being prepared, you also might start to get that sinking feeling about leaving your computer on at home or creating several bags of trash a week.
Newsom and Kasmala are poster children for the future of sustainable food. Newsom, 38, had been a vegetarian on and off since he was 17, coming up in the punk-vegan-anarchist scene in Detroit, and Kasmala, 28, was drawn to healthful food in reaction to her "consumerist suburban upbringing" and eating disorders. Early in 2007, the attractive duo began teaching simple vegetarian classes out of the Canfield Lofts next to Motor City Brewing Works in Detroit. Encouraged by the interest, in June 2007, they opened the Detroit Evolution Laboratory space on Gratiot Avenue near Russell Street.
And, despite limited advertising, mixing food and politics, and pursuing vegetarian fare in a solid meat-and-potatoes town, hundreds of students have taken their food classes. In fact, after starting out teaching vegetarian classes, it was their students who actually steered them toward vegan food. When Kasmala offered students choices of cheeses as ingredients, she found that none of them wanted any. A few students even objected to the inclusion of cheese, and all were fine with getting rid of it. Since they've switched to teaching vegan and raw food, their enrollment has actually increased.
Two days a week, they run a popular "lunch club," allowing members to order food for pick-up and delivery. Every Thursday and Friday, they prepare an ever-changing menu that includes a raw entrée, a vegan cooked entrée, and a made-to-order salad, all from local or organic suppliers, and all free of genetically modified organisms. They consistently sell out.
What's more, they aim for sustainability. Though they prepare more than 80 meals a week and run regular food classes, the kitchen is nearly zero-waste — they only take one tall kitchen bag to the trash a week; they recycle and compost the rest. They buy all their takeout food containers from a green-safe supplier to cut down on waste. They cut down on the fuel costs (and attendant pollution) of shipping food by setting the goal of using 100 percent local produce.
If all this seems like a long way to go for some tasty food, note that Newsom and Kasmala's organic food service appeals to a growing segment of Americans who believe that, increasingly, the food we eat is making us sick.
Newsom says, "A lot of people who come in here have been in some pretty intense health situations." They educate students about food, showing them how to eat better and fresher, without the processed foods, genetically modified ingredients and sugary additives. Dealing with people suffering from conditions like diabetes, they say they've seen some "miraculous" results. Kasmala says the outcomes are often so positive that even their students' friends who once sniffed at their dietary changes start to get curious.
Newsom says, "Once you make the switch, it's not hard. Once you start doing it, things start happening. It gets easier and easier, and it does interesting things for your health, for you, and for your relationship with the community."
It's no coincidence that they keep coming back to "community," an excellent way to keep the tone political but not doctrinaire. But these two aren't shrill or frowny. They laugh when asked if the food classes aren't just an experiment in socialization, countering that what they offer could be called "sustainable lifestyle training."
As they see it, opting to eat "normally" from the agricultural-industrial complex is just as political as seeking out small providers. Kasmala points out that relying on big food "makes a political statement, because you're buying into these large companies. But when you say, 'We are not going to support that,' it makes a huge political statement. We are going back to our communities — it's the only way to be sustainable."
And speaking of building community, the two are encouraged that, over the last year, some of their students have moved closer to the studio. "Many of our students have relocated to the city," Newsom says with pride. "That's more sustainable. ... We're getting to the point where people are starting to look at all the situations around them. How can they continue to live 45 minutes from work? Can they afford the extra money to ship their fancy hair conditioner all the way from California?"
It's a tempting point. If oil does keep getting more expensive, it could be the impetus for returning to earth-friendly folkways. Newsom continues, "I think that's part of what we're seeing with urban agriculture, or craft groups like Handmade Detroit. ... We're seeing cells of activity that are going to start to connect, by choice or necessity."
Maybe that's the ultimate take-away from a class at Detroit Evolution Laboratory: seeing food not as a commodity but as a relationship with the earth, as an individual and a community, one not to be approached without a conscience. "Think about that relationship," Newsom cautions. "In which direction are your food providers going?
The growth of the soil
Sunday service has just let out at the gothic revival Trinity Episcopal Church at the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Trumbull, just south of Grand River Avenue. The busy intersection has a few grand churches and a large liquor store, but behind the church, just off a children's playground, denim-clad Kathleen Devlin, 49, is getting down to work on her Spirit of Hope urban farm.
The weather has kept progress slow, and the frequent late snows have delayed deliveries of compost. But at the back of the lot, Devlin, who has created gardens in Detroit, Hamtramck and Oak Park, swings open the side door of her van. She produces a binder filled with scientific-looking sheets of soil tests. They have pollution data for the garden, which includes three lots the church owns and the fourth lot made available by a nonprofit.
"We checked the playground and that's fine, but these lots are just full of lead contamination," she says. The immediate plan involves capping off the lots with mulch so lead dust won't blow into the playground, and building raised beds of fresh soil to grow vegetables. To make sure plants don't "uptake" pollutants, Devlin says experts "recommend building up to 2-1/2 feet. But we'll do 3 feet to be safe." The soil is so compromised that any gardening can't involve tilling the earth. She says a bioremediation plan would involve using plants to draw out the pollutants with doses of compost tea — and could span 10 years or longer.
But the short-term plans for Spirit of Hope look ambitious, and include culinary and medicinal herbs, a greenhouse, and wooden raised beds for child, senior and handicapped gardeners. The farm will employ the principles of permaculture, with seven "zones" ranging from field crops to an orchard to a "wilderness" — likely a stand of Japanese knotweed where about a half dozen pheasants have been taking refuge. "They often run across the garden before sunset," Devlin says.
A Philadelphia native, Devlin has lived in Detroit on and off for the last three decades. Her lifelong obsession with food began as a child in Philly. Visiting her aunts in better neighborhoods, Devlin grew aware how much better they ate, literally tasting class differences in America. She's no stranger to preparing food either, having been a chef at Cass Cafe, the Majestic Café and Meadow Brook Hall. Though she says she made concessions preparing meat entrées in restaurants for the higher salary, she was an early vegetarian with a pronounced social conscience. For instance, after Hurricane Katrina washed over New Orleans, Devlin went to Louisiana to aid in the reconstruction. Seeing how disaster can affect a food supply left a deep impression on her.
"In New Orleans during reconstruction," she says, "food prices were three times what they were here in Detroit."
Devlin compares Detroit and New Orleans as cities hit by a disaster. "But the destruction there happened in a short time, where Detroit's calamity has been accumulating for 40 years."
"In this neighborhood, an 11-year-old is better able to buy a quart of beer than a fresh apple," she says. "Even a church soup kitchen pantry rarely has fresh produce or vegetables."
By planting her garden on one corner of a city block, she hopes to grow life-giving food in the inner city.
"I think lots of people are coming to realize that local foods are best for the environment and best for them, not just for taste but for health."
Meditations on health
A quiet calm pervades the basement café at the Detroit Zen Center. It's early in the lunch hour, and the center's staff and a few lunch club members have gathered to enjoy a vegetarian, mostly raw lunch at the dozen tables set out beneath Japanese lanterns.
Here in the basement of an old Polish wedding hall, club members may buy everything from organic vegetables to green-safe laundry and grooming products. The center has tubs of affordably priced organic rices, wheats and unbleached flours. A humming cooler is stocked with soy milks and organic butter and tofu.
But, rather than shopping, the small crowd is understandably drawn to the organic Middle Eastern buffet, with garden salad of greens, vegetables, cracked almonds and olives, and freshly ground plates of tabbouleh and hummus. For a sweet finish, a plate of sesame pistachio cookies sits nearby.
Sipping a coffee after his meal, center founder and Detroit native Hwalson Sunim (born Alexander Lundquist) is happy to talk about the foods at the café. A vegan who has been on a raw food diet for 30 years, Sunim looks younger than his 67 years. In the midst of overseeing a green redesign of the center, to be kinder to the environment and the community, he sees the café as a natural part of the center's mission. The café's mission isn't political, but one of consciousness-raising and community-building: Bringing healthful food to the neighborhood.
"The goal is 100 percent raw, because it's best for the environment and for health."
With a peaceful reserve, he explains how it all started.
"We did a raw and organic food night, and we had 125 people come through here in 24 hours. We saw there is a significant raw food population in metro Detroit. ... And we realized people were interested in organic foods, that this city needs a health food store."
Since they already had the means to provide vegan meals for their staff, the center opened its doors. "We just invited them in because we thought it wouldn't be so difficult." But only a short while later, city inspectors arrived to shut the café down, not because of the food, but because of zoning requirements: They said the center should install a motorized slide to ferry the wheelchair-bound to the basement location.
Though the center is working toward a goal of being fully licensed, even building a ramp down to the basement level, for now they are content to operate as a private "lunch club," with extremely reasonable membership fees.
And the food is simple, fresh and flavorful, grown in the area. "We have a Buddhist farmer south of Chelsea who runs a CSA [community-supported agriculture]. We've been members for the last three years."
On Saturdays, the center even sends staffers down to Eastern Market, where they operate a stall, their way of trying to introduce people to the benefits of organic and raw food, or as Sunim calls it "living food."
He describes it in terms of "Chi, or life-force. You get 60 percent of your energy from the air and water, 40 percent from the food. Well, we're in Hamtramck, so there's not much we can do about the air, but we even bring in our own water from a supplier on 14 Mile Road."
Those curious about joining the club can drop by the center, at Mitchell and Casmere in Hamtramck, noon on Saturdays. Members can even call ahead to join weekday lunches.
The café seems to be one of the center's most successful community outreach programs. Sunim says that even skeptics will have to admit that the food is healthful and good for the Chi. "Once they see the transformation, they're supportive and get involved."
Diving for deliciousness
Jean Wilson's Woodbridge home is filled with flowers on this late March day. Blossoms, likely flown in from some warmer clime, spill out of Wilson's selection of trash-picked vases, adding a hopeful note to another overcast early spring afternoon. It's with a note of pride that Wilson says all of her furniture and most of the trimmings are "curbside specials." What's more, the bunches of blooms are fresh from the Dumpster at an upscale supermarket, and they didn't cost her a penny.
Wilson, 50, a feisty, politically minded resident of Woodbridge since 1994, is what you'd call a "freegan." She's an expert in the art of sneaking behind big food's retail outlets and "Dumpster diving."
Wilson has always been keen on salvage, but she only began Dumpstering for food in earnest a few years ago. In 2004, she bought a mansion house in Woodbridge to run collectively with some artist friends. Jean says that, after the heating bills and repairs, there was no money left over for food. "You're pouring money into the house. Heat cost $1,200 a month. So I started Dumpstering. I was like, 'Oh, my God, this is so easy!'"
Her nighttime missions gleaned so much food from area Dumpsters, she began inviting neighborhood friends over every other Saturday night for what she calls "hobo kitchen," an evening of food and entertainment that ran regularly for a year and a half.
Of the food gleaned, some items are eat-it-today ripe, others are nonperishable, such as containers of almond or cashew butter. What food isn't edible can sometimes be replanted, such as potatoes, onions and other root vegetables. And what's leftover can be composted. Of some trendy food stores, Wilson says the food is good but "it's a challenge to recycle all the packing."
Though Wilson is glad about the amount of food she can gather for her friends and those who really need it, it also stings her social conscience.
"How can these companies trash-compact all this food?" she asks. "It's silly. All you've got to do is set it out back and give people a few hours to come pick it up. It'll all be gone. And they wouldn't have to have their Dumpster picked up as often."
In response to diving, some supermarkets have reacted defensively, even locking their Dumpsters.
"Detroit is a disaster zone when it comes to fresh food. Very few grocery stores carry it, and those that do are very tight about the food they intend to dispose of."
Some retailers would rather put food in a trash compactor than have a dialogue with divers.
Of local food retailers, Wilson says, "I tried talking first, but they won't work with me. So I sneak. The employees mostly don't mind, but the management doesn't approve."
Confrontations can sometimes have interesting results. When a manager actually engaged her in a discussion, Wilson pointed out how they weren't separating their glass and cardboard. The next time she returned, there was a separate Dumpster for recyclables. She says with a smile, "I may have had something to do with that."
When Wilson goes diving, she doesn't leave a mess. "I was taught to be respectful when you're in other people's trash. I actually try to leave it nicer."
The Redford native inherited a respect for trash from her mother, who grew up during the Depression. Like the children of many Depression babies, Wilson grew up in a neighborhood where houses commonly had not just vegetable gardens but fruit trees in their back yards. "We ate it and we canned it," she recalls. "It cut down on the amount of food you needed to buy. Now families have to buy all their food instead of some."
And that's not all that's changed. Wilson continues, "Now it's all prepared foods. It's gotten to the point where our bodies don't even have the enzymes to digest fresh food. When somebody says to me, 'I can't eat a salad. I get a stomachache,' I think that's sad."
Wilson is now trying to organize a nonprofit group with Spirit of Hope's Devlin called United Peace Relief — Detroit, an affiliate of an emergency response group they worked with in New Orleans.
Inspired by the Forest Arms fire, she recently paid $1,500 for a diesel bus she intends to use as an emergency soup kitchen, warming station, phone bank and infoshop on wheels. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Wilson filled the bus with recovered food, salvaged clothing and drove to the intersection of Martin Luther King and Trumbull to distribute the goods.
Handing out fresh food and clean clothing to a crowd that quickly gathers, she's beaming with pleasure, as only people living out their principles can.
Food and humanity
That busy intersection, home to Devlin's urban farm, and a stone's throw from Woodbridge, with its scores of household gardens and politically active young people, also hosts another weekly food gathering. In front of Scripps Park, near the wrought-iron entrance, the people of the radical group Food Not Bombs gather to ladle out food to the city's homeless. They've been meeting there for the past few years, although they also served food in Capitol Park downtown years ago and the week before to strikers at American Axle in Hamtramck.
Looking every bit a grown-up punk, leather jacketed Fidel Colman, 43, is here today with his wife Heather serving food to the homeless. They've been doing Food Not Bombs for years, having met each other after reading about the group in Metro Times. At times, they've worked out of First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Detroit on Cass Avenue, hopping around town in group kitchens, lately cooking out of a friend's house in Woodbridge. They run on donated space, donated food, and a handful of benefits a year.
Trying to serve vegan fare to Detroit's protein-hungry homeless sometimes makes for interesting situations. One summer day, the nearby Pilgrim Church hosted a cookout, which drew hungry folks from all over the neighborhood. Colman laughs recalling how more than one person took a pass on veggie fare to belly up to the barbecue.
The group has long-standing connections to the nearby anarchist center, the Trumbullplex, with its collection of poets, theater types and anarkids. With a group that political behind it, you half expect Colman to stand up on a soapbox for a speech, but he warmly says his reasons aren't purely political. "It's a spiritual thing. That's a big part of it: The ritual of making food for people. It allows me to become human."
Detroit Evolution Laboratory is at the rear entrance of 1434 Gratiot Ave., No. 1, Detroit; 313-316-1411. Lunch Club Times are 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Thrusdays and Fridays; menus go online at detroitevolution.com Mondays; calling ahead is strongly encouraged.
The Detroit Zen Center is at 11464 Mitchell St., Hamtramck; 313-366-7738. Members may call before 10:30 a.m. weekdays to join them for lunch.
United Peace Relief Detroit can be reached at 313-377-4303.
To learn more about Food Not Bombs, see footnotbombs.net.
Michael Jackman is a writer and copy editor for Metro Times. Send comments to mjackman@metrotimes.com.
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March 23, 2008
UPR Detroit would like to Thank those who braved the snow.
Our House party was small but awesome nonetheless. We wish to thank those who braved the snow storm to attend. Thank You!
Audra and Blair’s performances were amazing. There really is a magic to catching performers playing in the living room. After their performances as people began heading over to the "Food Not Bombs" benefit a jam session broke out with Blair and Miss Violet singing the blues that was inspiring.
If you missed it, sorry. Trust me you want to catch the next House Party we throw. It’s cheaper then going to a restaurant and the food is better. It’s cheaper then going to a concert and the music is more of an experience. And you help out a good cause what could be better then that? Not much!
Again Thank You to all those who attended and those who performed it was a very special night.
Peace,
UPR team
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March 19, 2008
Detroit, Let’s make this happen!
UPR Detroit will be hosting a dinner and a show this friday night at:
4203 Lincoln Detroit, Mi 48208 at
7 until 11pm. Featuring Audra Kubat and Blair and good food!
Suggested donation 5 to 10 dollars; more if you have it, less if you do not. We need to raise money to get our bus rolling.
Our bus and the volunteers on the bus will serve the Detroit area as an emergency mobile unit to assist first responders and victims of disasters big and small. Much like the citizen relief workers used in the Gulf Coast during Katrina. Our bus will have a kitchen, an alternative herbal medicine chest, and communication center. Our volunteers are training in emergency response. Some of our volunteers are alternative health practioners i.e. massage therapists, reiki healers, herbalists, others are experts in community resources.
UPR Detroit’s goals are to work in the following areas to address these pressing issues in our community; Food security issues, alternative health issues, and emergency response for our communities.
Food security is important in our area and to help with this issue we are in full support of the Detroit Agriculture Network, the Spirit of Hope Urban Farm, and area soup kitchens. We will be able to do a soup kitchen on our bus or just have coffee or tea during an emergencies.
Alternative health care information is very important in these times when care for the bottom line is more important then health care for people. It is our hope that we can help educate people on alternatives in health care. Being responsible for ones own health is empowering. We have nothing against Traditional Medicine at times it is the best way to go but when individuals learn alternatives they also learn the right questions to ask doctors, and pharmacists.
Emergency response in our area is slow at best. We do not believe it is the fault of the emergency response personnel, with budget cuts these professionals are overworked and suffering from burn out. Once someone is in an emergency there is little or no follow-up to make sure the person or family lands on their feet. For this reason we are working on collecting a community resource database to help ensure fewer people in our communities fall through the cracks.
As we saw during Katrina there is no guarantee that our federal, state, or city governments can/ or will help us during times of crisis. If we believe another way is possible we need to work towards that. All of us are touched by crisis at one time or another. If all of us who have been touched by crisis does a little we can get a lot done. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are far from recovered from the devastation of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma but they are recovering with the help of everyday people like you or I.
Detroit has been in economic crisis for some 40 years. Whole areas of our city look like Post-Katrina New Olreans. We can change our city for the better if we all pitch in. On some levels if seems unfair that we should have to clean up the mess left behind by corporations, failed governmental policies, and abandonment. It is. At this juncture we also have a unique opportunity to rebuild a more creative, greener, cleaner, more caring Detroit. Please join us in networking, volunteering, and supporting the institutions, non-profits, and activists who make our city better for all of us. Thank You!
UPR Detroit wishes to Thank;
Liz from Cainine to 5 on Cass Ave
Peter Werbe
Spirit of Hope Church
Spirit of Hope Urban Farm
United Peace Relief
The Metro-Times
The Detroit News
WDET
The Godmothers
Food Not Bombs Detroit
The Old Miami
Blair
Audra Kubat
and all of the individuals who have attended our meetings and got involved in this important project and others who just called or wrote offering support.
Thank You!
UPR Detroit team
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February 27, 2008
Our Detroit chapter is off and running. Plans and meetings are being scheduled as we speak. Watch our website for updates on the Detroit page. We have a separate page with everything Detroit-related together for easy access. If you would like additional information about the membership and/or meetings, feel free to email us at membership@unitedpeacerelief.org.
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February 18, 2008
1st Meeting of UPR Detroit
The Detroit Chapter of United Peace Relief held our first meeting Monday evening at 7pm. It was quickly decided to met at 6 or 6:30pm for future meetings.
Five people attended the meeting we were hoping for more but the people that were there were dymanic.
We set an agenda to:
1. Secure a mobile unit by early spring. Bio-diesel if possible. Possibly one of us traveling to get the Beast( a UPR mobile unit) in Slidell.
2. Hold our first fund-raiser on March 21 at Jeans' House for dinner and a show featuring some of our folk artist friends if they say, yes. Be on the look out for flyers.
3. Get t-shirts, brochures, flyers,
4. Fund-raisers; sunflower seed bombs, seed and sprout sale, party at the Old Miami w/ guests, sale of emergency kits w/ UPR logo( women's craft night will help with seed bombs and kits)
5. Network with other grass-roots relief, peace and justice groups, ect.
6. Partner w/ others for the "Free Store"
7. Made committed to help grow the medicinal herb garden at Spirit of Hope
8. Make a resource list for Metro-Detroit of soup kitchens, clinics, non-profit resources, neighborhood groups, emergency contacts, one page folded like a 'zine.
9. Follow up with people who wanted to join us but don't have money to be members and work out a way for them to maybe work off their membership?
10. Begin collecting things for medicinal medicine chest, soup kitchen, and contacts.
11. Set agenda for next meeting Monday 6:30pm and hopefully after the radio show @ 11 am there will be more of us to make this agenda a reality.
We are off to a great start. Lots of good energy coming our way. Jean and Kate will be on WDET 101.9 on Detroit Today monday the 25 at 11am talking about this project. Please tune in. If you would like to joins us, make a donation of cash, goods or services, or just wish us well drop us a line.
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February 15, 2008
The Detriot Chapter of UPR has a RV sitting down on the bayou at a bio-diesel grass-roots eco-venture encampment run by vets just waiting to come to Detroit to become a soup kitchen/commnunity center on wheels. To be used for on-going disaster relief in the mid-west. If you have been paying attention to the weather pattens over the last few years you know climate change is in full swing; server hurricanes, tornados, ice storms, power outages in the coldest part of the year, or hottest, the breaking down of older cities infrastructures, and who knows what else? Things are changing people of all ages can feel it.
Our governments; city, county, state, and federal can not and/or will not help everyone in an emergency. As we seen during Katrina, Rita, and Wilma it is grass-roots organizations that make the difference. Detroit UPR wishes to address the following issues: Food Security, Alternative Healing Modalities, and Emergency support. We wish to have a mobil unit fitted to be a soup kitchen, communication center, info-shop, warming center, community center by spring.
We could go to Slidell and get the RV to make this dream a reality, but it would cost at least 800 dollars in gas to get it back here not to mention the the travel expenses to get there. We think it would be best to donate the RV in Slidell to New Orleans Voices for Peace, and find either an RV or a school bus that we can turn into a bio-diesel bus.
Someone knows someone who might have a RV or school bus that they want to get rid of? RV's and buses eat up a lot of gas and people are not going to be able to drive them for vacation anymore. If someone donates a bus or RV we can give them a tax write-off. Just think about it.
If you were in a disaster such as a fire to your home or your whole block or the power went out for days you might be thankful to see a friendly peace bus come pulling up to your neighborhood with tea, chair massage, info on area services, a place to wait for the RC, or Salvation Army, musicians, a phone, blankets, you get the idea. Maybe the thought of working on a relief bus really inspires you, or you'd love to volunteer but you are too, busy but have resources please consider helping to make this dream a reality. Donate, time, resources, or money to Detroit UPR become a member. Help create a a grass-roots relief network in Detroit.
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February 13, 2008
After last weeks fire at the Forest Arms Apartment Building a group of Detroiters got together and decided to form a local grass-roots relief organization. Instead of re-inventing the wheel they have joined forces with UPR to build a local chapter to provide humanitiarian relief in crisis situations.
The Detroit Chapter is going to be working on:
1. Securing a vehicle for soup kitchen/community center on wheels.
2. Finding a space we can use for free or very cheap for a "Free Store" along with networking with other
non-profits and others to start, run and fill the free store. We just think there are so many things floating
around that we should put it all somewhere where people who need it can come and get it.
3. Finding volunteers to man/woman/people the free store and the mobile unit.
4. Building a medicinal herb garden @ the Spirit of Hope Urban Farm.
5. On-going networking and fundraising...anyway we can.
If you would like to be a part of this project and a member of the Detroit Chapter, go to our Membership page for details. If you have questions, please feel free to email us at info@unitedpeacerelief.org. If you would like to contribute to this project, go to our Donate page. Be sure to note in the memo field that you would like your donation to go to the Detroit Project and/or Forest Arms relief. Remember, your contributions are tax deductible and if you need a receipt, email us and we will send one to you.
Kate Devlin
Detroit, MI
United Peace Relief Board Member
Credit: Kelly A. Southard / For The South End Credit: Graham Johnson
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February 13, 2008
Although the Urban Farm is being built and housed by the Spirit of Hope Church, it would not be possible had I not been a part of United Peace Relief. Through my work with UPR, my activism has been re-sparked, re-awakened, and re-energized. My experience at the UPR camp in Slidell, LA back in early 2006 brought me into contact with activists from around the country and reconnected me to activists that had lived in Detroit at one time or another. Those connections reminded me that at one time there were many progressive projects happening in and around Detroit and that activism is very much needed again. Although Detroit did not suffer a massive disaster all at one time as New Orleans did in 2005, there has been an on-going disaster of one sort or another for the last 40 years.
As a volunteer in New Orleans, I was not nearly affected by the shocking sights of devastation that others felt. I realized that I have become desensitized to destruction through what I see everyday in Detroit. With that realization, I decided that the time has come to help beautify Detroit again and acceptance of the raw ugliness I see everyday is no longer acceptable. The pressing realities of the current problems facing us makes the need for food security a pressing problem that I felt compelled to work on. Slowly there are others who are joining me in helping to create a place of beauty and abundance in one of the poorest cities in the country. Our Urban Farm will be a place for people to gather to work towards a common goal, a place to teach our children about fresh local foods, a place of peace and refuge in a sometimes hostile landscape.
UPR has commited to helping Spirit of Hope Urban Farm by help provide seeds for our medicinal garden, and helping us secure park benches for our small park area for community use. The medicinal herbs will be made into tinctures and teas to be used on our mobile relief unit which will respond to area emergencies. If you wish to volunteer in Detroit, please send us an e-mail. To donate to projects in Detroit please use the paypal and send a message if is to be earmarked for Detroit UPR. You can check out Spirit of Hope at www.spiritofhopedetroit.org.
Thank You,
Kate
UPR Board Member
Spirit of Hope Urban Farm Director
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October 6, 2007
What United Peace Relief is doing in Detroit
Although most of our attention remains focused on the Gulf Coast the UPR chapter in Detroit is co-sponsoring an Urban Farm @ Spirit of Hope located in Corktown in Detroit. For UPR's part in this project we will be building an herb garden with medicinal herbs. This project is a way to help empower this neighborhood to provide food securit over the coming years and to help educate people of all ages the importance of local foods and healing herbs. In the future when our RV's are no longer needed on the Gulf Coast, one of the RV's will be housed in Detroit where it will be used as a soup kitchen. The UPR board is proud to sponsor this important project.
To form a local chapter in your area of the country or to join an exsisting chapter please visit our Membership page or email us. We'll guide you along the way.
