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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2009 /  Urban gardens offer a blessed harvest

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 21, 2009

Photo courtesy Capuchin Soup Kitchen Ministries Patrick Crouch, program manager for Earthworks Urban Garden, works alongside volunteers in the greenhouse.

Detriot - If the City of Detroit is a "food desert," then the Earthworks Urban Farm must be an oasis in that desert.

The "food desert" label was given by advocates for more fresh fruits and vegetables in the diets of Detroit residents, many of whom lack easy access to food stores that carry fresh produce.

A program of Capuchin Soup Kitchen Ministries, Earthworks Urban Farm is doing what it can" to address the problems of food scarcity and poverty in our community, says Patrick Crouch, program manager for Earthworks.

Crouch says the bulk of the farming is done by volunteers who donate their time to help grow fruits and vegetables, about 90 percent of which go to the Capuchins' two soup kitchens on Detroit's lower east side.

Earthworks started in 1997 with one garden adjacent to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen on Meldrum across from St. Bonaventure Monastery, but now farms a number of lots in the neighborhood, growing peaches, pears, apples, cherries, grapes, gooseberries, elderberries, lettuce, cabbage spinach, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.

"We also make plots available to folks who come to the soup kitchens to grow food for their own use, and have about a dozen such plots right now," Crouch says.

Jim West | CNS Volunteers work at the Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit this summer. The farm grows fresh produce for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.

Earthworks also sells some of its produce at a booth it operates at Detroit's Eastern Market on Saturdays and outside the Father Solanus Center by the monastery on Wednesdays.

Sometimes Earthworks crews can be found at small start-up farmers' markets in other parts of the metro area, mainly as a way of helping the new market get off the ground.

Earthworks also has a youth program involving about 25 teens who grow food and then can sell it at market stalls.

While there are an estimated 200 urban gardens in the city, Earthworks is not only the largest, but also can now claim the "Certified Organic" label for its fruits and vegetables.

Earthworks works with local organizations that promote urban farming, such as the Garden Resource Program Collaborative, the Greening of Detroit, Detroit Agricultural Network and the Michigan State University Extension Service.

Photo courtesy Capuchin Soup Kitchen Ministries Patrick Crouch, program manager for Earthworks Urban Garden, checks seedlings at one of the Capuchin Soup-Kitchen-sponsored farming lots in Detroit.

One of the projects it helps that was designed to address the "food desert" problem, as identified by Chicago-based researcher Mari Gallagher, is one that tries to convince local gas station convenience stores and liquor stores to offer customers some fresh produce. Many Detroit residents are thought to do most or all of their food shopping at such venues, which mostly carry what Crouch calls "calorie-dense, nutritionally empty food" and do not typically offer fresh produce.

Gallagher's research on the ability of fresh produce in Detroit showed that more than half of Detroit's residents must travel at least twice as far to reach a grocery store as a liquor store.

Although Eastern Market might offer all the fresh produce anyone could wish, Crouch notes that there is only one market day a week, and that some poor Detroiters might find it difficult to get to via Detroit's public transportation system or simply be unable to get there on a Saturday.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Eastern Market were to add another market day," he says.

When it comes to food distribution programs, some offer fresh produce along with canned, packaged and, perhaps, frozen foods, while others do not.

Capuchin Soup Kitchen Ministries own food distribution center on Medbury near Mount Elliott Avenue south of the Ford Freeway (I-94) offers fresh produce obtained through Gleaners Community Food Bank.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul operates three community food depots, and while its depots in Hazel Park and Port Huron offer fresh produce donated by growers, the one in Detroit does not. Patrick Adamcik, who oversees the food depot operations, says he is looking into making fresh fruits and vegetables through a low-cost program offered by Gleaners.

At St. Mark's Outreach in Warren, most of the fresh produce comes through Gleaners and much comes from operators of area farm produce stands, but quite a lot comes from an 81-year-old parishioner who grows vegetables in her backyard.

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Corinne Glowacki, a member of St. Mark Parish in Warren, shows off some of the cucumbers she has grown in her backyard garden.

"We've had lettuce two days a week since sometime in May - tons of lettuce - plus tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beets from Corinne Glowacki," says Denise Amenta, outreach coordinator for St. Mark Parish, which operates the food depot with support from other parishes in the Warren-Center Line Vicariate.

St. Mark's Outreach distributes about 25,000 pounds of emergency food a month to 150 families, as well as serving 200 senior citizens who are part of the Focus: HOPE Food Prescription Program each month, and also another 300 families who qualify for assistance through the Macomb County commodity food distribution program.

Glowacki produces the bounty she shares with the outreach program on an approximately 20-foot by 20-foot patch of ground behind her garage in the backyard of her home in a south Warren subdivision.

"I've been doing this for myself for about 20 years, but I started taking food to the church about four years ago. I had a bumper crop of lettuce, and I just thought I should do something," she says.

Hantz

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Glowacki's small backyard plot is the urban farming operation envisioned by local financial services entrepreneur and Indian Village resident John Hantz.

Plans for Hantz Farms Detroit call for a minimum of 25 acres of abandoned former residential land within the city limits being turned into a commercial farming operation, with the potential of expanding that to thousands of acres. And initial work could begin by Thanksgiving if the necessary approvals are given.

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Matt Allen, senior vice president of Hantz Farms LLC, talks about entrepreneur John Hantz' plans for turning parcels of former urban residential land such as this one into commercial farms. The vertical structure partially seen in a gap between trees is the General Motors headquarters/Renaissance Center.

The city needs to establish a property tax rate for agricultural land, something it has not had in decades, but Matt Allen, Hantz Farms' senior vice president, says his boss has the money in hand to acquire the land and begin work as soon as a rate is set.

As a large-scale commercial farming operation, Hantz would be establishing fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, as well as using some parcels for tree farms and the growing of ornamentals.

"We're going to pay taxes, and have real jobs and real products, and we're going to sell them to real people," says Allen, a member of St. Augustine and St. Monica Parish on Detroit's east side.

Most of the food and other products produced would be sold to wholesalers, but he says there would also be a farm store and a presence at Eastern Market.

In addition, streets and alleys within the parcels would be covered by solar panels to generate electrical power, and hoop-style greenhouses would provide a certain amount of year-round vegetable production.

Allen says Hantz Farms has been collaborating with agricultural experts at Michigan State University on the best crops to grow, and with the Kellogg Foundation on how the farming operation could provide educational opportunities for Detroit youth.

To those who object that vacant land should be redeveloped for residential use, Allen responds that Detroit has more than enough vacant land available for Hantz Farms' purposes and any likely residential needs in the foreseeable future.

On the one hand, Hantz would not be trying to acquire land in the more desirable areas for residential redevelopment - such as near the riverfront, or downtown or University-Cultural Center area - and on the other hand, there is no reasonable expectation of redevelopment plans for most of the vacant areas, he contends.

Allen says Hantz Farms' research shows its plans would be profitable and sustainable, but to anyone who doubts the venture could be a success, he responds, "Even if the worst should happen and we don' make it, the land would still be there - and in better condition than we found it."

And he adds, "We plan to change the environment physically for the benefit of the community."