As an accelerator of innovative projects, FoodPLUS Detroit’s primary role is to enable projects through collective, collaborative engagement; navigating policy and community change; resource and knowledge sharing; and systems development.
Projects are designed to facilitate increased connectedness through a broad base of multi-stakeholder engagement focused on innovating existing and emerging urban agriculture and food systems work. They are also designed to build Detroit’s capacity in all sectors of the food system and the related resources systems (e.g. land, water, air), to reduce environmental and climate impacts, and to foster love, equity, and justice.
| PROJECT TITLE | PROJECT TEAM | PROJECT DESCRIPTION |
| Urban Agriculture & Food System Development through Innovative Engagement Practices |
Renee V. Wallace Gwen Winston
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Engage diverse community and city government stakeholders in innovative activities to:
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| Peoples Compost Initiative |
Renee V. Wallace Mark Covington Lori McPhee Gwen Winston Kylie Michelle (youth leader) PROJECT PARTICIPANTS Daryl Pierson, Grace Maves (WSU Campus Sustainability) The Tidy-Town Composters (Chuck, Carla, Gilda, Kadisha, Elsa, Tamu, Medvis, Termaine, Turner) Patrice Brown (Eastern Market: Community Markets) Travis Peters (Green Boots Veterans Farm & Marker) Nancy Varner (Palmer Park Farmers Market)
PARTNERS Marvin Hayes, Kenny Moss (Baltimore Compost Collective) James McSweeney (131 School of Composting) Brenda Platt, Linda Bilsens, Clarissa (ILSR) Cary Oshins, Matt Cotton (USCC)
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Vision: An integrated distributed city-wide network of diverse scale compost systems that process local food waste into compost products that are used locally to meet needs in Detroit Our participatory approach includes engagement, education, training, pilots, and systems development. We also build capacity through site visits and learning exchanges with other cities and organizations. Completed Projects: Georgia Street Community Collective (GSCC), Wayne State University, and FoodPLUS pilot: Farm-based compost system that processes university generated food scraps that are collected and delivered by students (Compost Warriors) and integrates the two communities through events and volunteerism Composting for Community Health Project was a collaboration of four local organizations to develop three models for community composting with the support of an international partner, the Mother Earth Foundation; the project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Eastern Market: Detroit Community Markets Farmers Market Drop-off Pilot operated at Palmer Park, Green Boots Veteran Market, and Jefferson Chalmers markets Peoples Compost Training and Demonstration System (located at GSCC) Peoples Compost Training Program (evolved to a service) Peoples Compost Interactive Event Experiences (evolved to a service) Current Projects: Community-scale infrastructure development; Develop one city-certified system and one community closed-loop system per council district Backyard & Alley Compost System operated by The Tidy-town Neighborhood Association (TNA) (District 2) Future Projects: Compost Hub Compost Guild Integrate system with resilience hub network |
| Urban Livestock Guild |
Renee V. Wallace Mark Covington Winona Bynum Amy Kraus Tiffany Pilson Jason Lindy |
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| NEXTCYCLE Michigan (EGLE Initiative) | Renee V. Wallace | |
| Collaboration and Innovation Platform |
TBD |
Develop a technology-enabled platform that facilitates collaborative and innovative activities; serve as backbone for all network engagers
Build capacity of all network engagers by creating connectivity between the FPD backbone and their technology-enabled platforms; extend connectivity to platforms of network partners and sponsors |