A decade ago, researchers reported that more than half of Detroit residents live in a food desert—an area where access to fresh and affordable healthy foods is limited because grocery stores are too far away. Efforts since then to bring more grocery stores—and food security—to predominantly Black neighborhoods haven’t worked.
But that’s looking to change.
Malik Yakini is executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, a coalition of people and groups that promotes urban agriculture, co-operative buying, and healthy eating. His organization is helping Black people in the city take matters into their own hands by creating their own grocery store, The Detroit People’s Co-op. The grocery will sit in the city’s North End neighborhood, where about 92 percent of residents are Black and nearly 40 percent have a household income less than $15,000.
“This new store will give the people more control over the food they eat and its production and preparation.”
“We found that a co-op grocery store was imperative,” says Yakini, adding that the members began to conceptualize the co-op in 2010 after they surveyed hundreds of Detroiters on their dietary eating habits, wants, and needs. “This new store will give the people more control over the food they eat and its production and preparation,” he says.
Food deserts are usually found in low-income areas, forcing residents either to travel to the suburbs for fresh groceries or settle for one of the many nearby convenience stores and fast food restaurants. Since transportation and time is an issue for low-income families, the impact is a health epidemic. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black American adults have the highest overweight and obesity rates in the country.
Other cities similarly affected by a lack of healthy food options are looking for solutions. In Chicago, where about 600,000 people live in food deserts, the mayor has vowed to provide more fresh meat and produce options in the city’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods, but it’s been a struggle. Atlanta is converting lands into urban farms, and a local farm in New Orleans is combating food deserts by matching the spending of shoppers with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, up to $20. What used to be called “food stamps,” SNAP is a federal program designed to help low-income households.
In Detroit, the solution is coming from the neighborhoods themselves. Owners of the grocery cooperative will be the people who use it—neighborhood residents.
A rendering of Detroit People’s Co-op. Image from Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.
Kayla Phillips, 23, lives two blocks from where the new grocery store will be built. She immediately bought into the co-op with $200 after she heard Yakini talk about the grocery at a community gathering he organized a few months ago.
“Because this new store is a co-op, everyone in the community can own it.”
“Food security and food sovereignty in underdeveloped and urban neighborhoods is something that I’ve always been passionate about,” says Phillips, who can count at least seven fast food restaurants but only two grocery stores with limited produce sections within 2 miles of her home. “Because this new store is a co-op, everyone in the community can own it. That is amazing,” she says.
Local farms will be integral partners, particularly D-Town Farm, the 7-acre farm owned and operated by DBCFSN. Dispersed throughout the farm are African proverbs that relate to food and the culture of farming. Phillips volunteered to work on the farm and is in awe of the vegetables growing there: potatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplants, spinach, lettuce, garlic, scapes, and more. The new grocery store will be a way to get more of that food deeper into the city and to the residents who need it.
Tirrea Billings, a filmmaker who is profiling D-Town Farm in an upcoming documentary, says spending a lot of time on the farm made her realize how vital it is for more Black people to take part in co-op grocery stores. “A group of people in a nation who can’t feed themselves doesn’t have a future, that’s what one of the farmers at D-Town Farm told me,” Billings says. “The new grocery store will be a huge asset for the city of Detroit.”
And there are economic benefits. The Detroit People’s Co-op is not just about having access to healthy food, Yakini says. He hopes the new grocery store will be an opportunity to increase Black ownership in the city.
“In most Black communities throughout the United States, other ethnic groups own most of the businesses,” Yakini says. “And they function on an extractive basis as they take profits out of our community and circulate little of those profits to create jobs, wealth, and community empowerment.”
So cooperative models like this are needed in which Black people have ownership and control of the stores in their communities and can share the wealth, he adds.
“Co-ops are one of the ways to do that,” Yakini says.
Construction for the new grocery store is scheduled for March 2018. So far, the co-op has 140 member-owners, and Yakini says they aim to have 1,200 member-owners by the time it opens. He and the other DBCFSN members are holding community engagement meetings throughout the city that they expect will help meet their goal.
This article was funded in part from a grant by the Surdna Foundation.
J. Gabriel Ware is a former reporting and editorial intern and solutions reporter at Yes! He worked on the assignment desk and as a field producer for ABC News in New York and Los Angeles, where he covered the Harvey Weinstein trial, George Floyd protests in New York, and COVID-19. J. Gabriel is also a screenwriter who incorporates solutions journalism in his stories. His first screenplay, "Jakayla" was placed in the Austin Film Festival and won Third Place in the Cinestory Feature Retreat and Fellowship competition. He can be reached at [email protected]
Utafiti wa mwaka wa 2015 ulionyesha kuwa zaidi ya nusu ya wakazi wa Detroit wanaishi katika jangwa la chakula, eneo ambalo upatikanaji wa vyakula safi na vya afya ni mdogo kwa sababu maduka ya vyakula ni mbali sana. Jitihada tangu wakati huo kuleta maduka zaidi ya vyakula - na usalama wa chakula - kwa vitongoji hasa Black hawajafanya kazi. Lakini hilo linatafuta kubadilika. "Malik Yakin ni mkurugenzi mtendaji wa Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, shirika la watu na makundi yanayopendekeza ""kulima kwa miji, kununua kwa ushirikiano, na kula kwa afya.""" Shirika lake linawasaidia watu weusi katika jiji kuchukua mambo mikononi mwao kwa kuunda duka lao la vyakula, The Detroit People's Co-op. Kituo hicho kitakuwa katika kitongoji cha North End, ambapo karibu asilimia 92 ya wakazi ni weusi na karibu asilimia 40 wana mapato ya chini ya dola 15,000 kwa mwaka. "Wakati wa kuanzisha duka la chakula, kampuni hiyo ilifanya kazi kwa bidii na kuanzisha duka la chakula la pamoja, ""Yakini alisema, akiongeza kwamba wanachama walianza kubuni wazo la ushirikiano huo mnamo 2010 baada ya kuchunguza mamia ya watu wa Detroit juu ya tabia zao za kula, wanataka, na mahitaji." "Duka hili jipya litawapa watu udhibiti zaidi juu ya chakula wanachokula na uzalishaji na maandalizi yake", anasema. Jangwa la chakula kwa kawaida hupatikana katika maeneo ya mapato ya chini, na kulazimisha wakazi kusafiri kwenda vitongoji kwa vyakula safi au kukaa kwa moja ya maduka mengi ya karibu na mikahawa ya chakula cha haraka. Kwa kuwa usafiri na wakati ni tatizo kwa familia zenye mapato ya chini, athari ni janga la afya. Kulingana na Kaiser Family Foundation, watu wazima weusi wa Marekani wana viwango vya juu zaidi vya uzito kupita kiasi na unene wa kupita kiasi nchini. Miji mingine iliyoathiriwa vivyo hivyo na ukosefu wa chaguzi za chakula chenye afya inatafuta suluhisho. Katika jiji la Chicago, ambalo watu wapatao 600,000 wanaishi katika jangwa la chakula, meya ameahidi kutoa nyama safi zaidi na bidhaa za kuchagua katika vitongoji vya South Side na West Side, lakini imekuwa ni changamoto. Atlanta inabadilisha ardhi kuwa mashamba ya mijini, na shamba la ndani huko New Orleans linapambana na jangwa la chakula kwa kulinganisha matumizi ya wanunuzi na faida za Programu ya Msaada wa Lishe ya Kuongeza, hadi $ 20. SNAP (Sanduku la Chakula) ni mpango wa serikali ya Marekani unaolenga kusaidia familia zenye mapato ya chini. Katika Detroit, suluhisho linatoka katika vitongoji wenyewe. Wamiliki wa ushirika wa vyakula watakuwa watu wanaotumia <unk> wakazi wa jirani. Utoaji wa Detroit People's Co-op. Picha kutoka Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Kayla Phillips, mwenye umri wa miaka 23, anaishi karibu na mahali ambapo duka hilo jipya la vyakula litakuwa. Alijitolea kununua duka hilo kwa dola 200 baada ya kumsikia Yakini akizungumza kuhusu duka hilo katika mkutano wa jamii aliokuwa amepanga miezi michache iliyopita. "Kwa sababu duka hili jipya ni la ushirika, kila mtu katika jamii anaweza kuwa na mali yake. ""Usalama wa chakula na uhuru wa chakula katika vitongoji vya chini na mijini ni kitu ambacho nimekuwa na shauku juu yake, ""anasema Phillips, ambaye anaweza kuhesabu angalau mikahawa saba ya chakula cha haraka lakini maduka mawili tu ya vyakula na sehemu ndogo za mazao ndani ya maili 2 ya nyumba yake." <unk>Kwa sababu duka hili jipya ni la ushirika, kila mtu katika jamii anaweza kuwa mmiliki wake. Hiyo ni ya ajabu, <unk> anasema. Mimea ya ndani itakuwa mshirika muhimu, haswa D-Town Farm, shamba la ekari 7 linalomilikiwa na kuendeshwa na DBCFSN. Katika shamba hilo lote kuna mithali za Kiafrika zinazohusiana na chakula na utamaduni wa kilimo. Phillips alijitolea kufanya kazi katika shamba hilo na anavutiwa na mboga zinazokua huko: viazi, squash, zucchini, eggplant, spinach, lettuce, vitunguu, scapes, na mengineyo. Duka hilo jipya la vyakula litakuwa njia ya kupata chakula hicho kinachopita ndani ya jiji na kwa wakazi wanaokihitaji. "Tirrea Billings, mtengenezaji wa filamu ambaye anaelezea D-Town Farm katika filamu ya hivi karibuni, anasema kutumia muda mwingi katika shamba hilo kulimfanya atambue jinsi ni muhimu kwa watu wengi weusi kushiriki katika maduka ya vyakula ya ""co-op.""" "Kundi la watu katika taifa ambalo haliwezi kujilisha halina siku zijazo, ndivyo mmoja wa wakulima wa D-Town Farm aliniambia", Billings anasema. "Duka jipya la vyakula litakuwa mali kubwa kwa mji wa Detroit". Na kuna faida za kiuchumi. Detroit People's Co-op si tu kuhusu kuwa na upatikanaji wa chakula afya, Yakini anasema. Anatarajia duka jipya la vyakula litakuwa fursa ya kuongeza umiliki wa Weusi jijini. "Katika jamii nyingi za weusi kote Marekani, vikundi vingine vya kikabila vina biashara nyingi", Yakini anasema. "Na wanafanya kazi kwa msingi wa uchimbaji kwani huchukua faida kutoka kwa jamii yetu na kusambaza kidogo ya faida hizo kuunda ajira, utajiri, na nguvu za jamii. ""Kwa hivyo mifano ya ushirikiano kama hii inahitajika ambapo watu weusi wana umiliki na udhibiti wa maduka katika jamii zao na wanaweza kushiriki utajiri, ""aongezea." <unk> Co-ops ni moja ya njia ya kufanya hivyo,<unk> Yakini anasema. Ujenzi wa duka la chakula la kwanza umepangwa kufanyika mwezi Machi. Kwa sasa, kampuni hiyo ina wanachama 140, na Yakini anasema wana lengo la kuwa na wanachama 1,200 wakati itafunguliwa. Yeye na wanachama wengine wa DBCF wanafanya mikutano ya ushiriki wa jamii kote jijini ambayo wanatarajia itasaidia kufikia lengo lao. Makala hii ilifadhiliwa kwa sehemu na ruzuku ya Shirika la Surdna. J. Gabriel Ware ni zamani ripoti na wahariri intern na ufumbuzi mwandishi katika Ndiyo! Alifanya kazi katika dawati la mgawo na kama mtayarishaji wa uwanja wa ABC News huko New York na Los Angeles, ambapo alishughulikia kesi ya Harvey Weinstein, maandamano ya George Floyd huko New York, na COVID-19. J. Gabriel pia ni mwandishi wa filamu ambaye huingiza uandishi wa habari wa suluhisho katika hadithi zake. Screenplay yake ya kwanza, "Jakayla" iliwekwa katika tamasha la filamu la Austin na ilishinda nafasi ya tatu katika mashindano ya Cinestory Feature Retreat na Fellowship. Anaweza kupatikana kwenye [email protected]