Food Justice and Good Food Enterprises

By the 2000s, communities across the country were taking action to grow, sell, and eat locally produced, healthy food. And food justice and food security movements sprouted in historically distressed urban communities where neglect, systemic discrimination, and limited economic opportunities often prevented efforts to make good food accessible for all.

In 2006, educator and activist Malik Yakini co-founded the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network to improve self-reliance in the city’s African American community. The network established D-Town Farm in 2008 and, over the next decade, expanded its urban farming programs to include the Detroit People’s Food Co-op and other food and community enterprises.

The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network teaches city residents the value in independently growing food to feed their communities. Its after-school program, Food Warriors, involves children in growing food and helps them to understand the basics of nutrition.