Join us in raising $150K more to support 50 more Black farmers in 2024
As we look back over 5 years of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund we are ecstatic at our progress - and it shows!
Following organizing efforts to exempt local farmers from an unfair land value tax in Detroit, with very important support from our #DBFLFMatriarch Mama Jerry Hebron of Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, our co-founder and long time #DBFLFLeadership committee member, Tepfirah Rushdan, was appointed Detroit’s first ever Director of Urban Agriculture in September 2023! As “Mama Tee” as we call her, works to directly shape the policies that impact #DetroitBlackFarmers, now as Detroit’s Director of Sustainability, another #DBFLFLeadership committee member, Patrice Brown, stepped into Director of Urban Ag role. Patrice has been an integral part of the #DBFLFLeadership committee, stewarding over the past two years, DBFLF’s first awardee Grow-Op Cooperative. With her support the Grow-Op aggregated produce into 90K USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance boxes last year, and with support from our legal mind and DBCFSN Board Chair Mama Erin and the brilliant students at the University of Michigan Community Enterprise Clinic, the Grow-Op finalized the choice of a business entity to collectively sell produce - Detroit’s newest nonprofit consumer cooperative, is on the way!
The Grow-Op choice to formalize embodies the cooperative principle of supporting other co-ops, namely the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, which opened on May 1, 2024 at the DBCFSN Detroit Food Commons! This final link in our local food system ensures that awardees growing and selling produce have a direct line to selling their produce locally and circulate those dollars within the Detroit Black Community. DBCFSN is a DBFLF Co-Founding organization, and is now co-lead by #DBFLFLeadership Committee member dr. shakara tyler saba, long time DBCFSN Board President, as Detroit’s beloved Malik Yakini passes the torch of leadership to a new generation following decades of food sovereignty work and organizing. Alongside #DBFLFLeadCoConspirator Danielle Daguio, #DBFLFLeadership Committee member Angela Lugo-Thomas represents DBFLF Co-Founding organization, Keep Growing Detroit, following years of phenomenal service on the Detroit People’s Food Coop Board.
In addition to maintaining our growth in land acquisitions and infrastructure projects, we have worked hard to help awardees navigate rising title and closing costs. When faced with sometimes thousands of dollars to close on their land purchase, because of YOU and your generosity, DBFLF has been able to step in and support awardees to make it over the finish line. 5 years ago unforeseen costs throughout the vacant land purchase process would limit or stop a #DetroitBlackFarmer from making a land purchase.
We are closing this gap, together!!
As we gear up to support 50 MORE AWARDEES in 2024, we are excited to have new levels of engagement for awardees virtually. Through data collection and streamlining infrastructure purchases for awardees, #DBFLFLeadership Committee member, Gabrielle Knox, has focus on awardee processing and the patterns it reveals. We, too, have invested in an awardee online portal and accompanying BlackFarmFinder.com, brainchild of #DBFLFAwardee and DBCFSN Board Member, Sherrie Smith, makes our awardee process continually better and refined to reflect our collaborative process and nature, We are #DetroitBlackFarmers!
THANK YOU FOR supporting Us! Keep sharing! Keep uplifting THIS WORK! WE ARE BALANCING DECADES OF THE INEQUITIES we have all witnessed here in Detroit. We can, have and WILL, MAKE this change - together.
