CSPI’s Engagement Team traveled to Detroit to connect with community organizations on the ground working at the intersection of food, health, and justice. We came to listen and learn from those increasing food access and those strengthening neighborhoods through policy, advocacy, and direct service. Each organization has a unique approach to addressing food and health issues in Detroit which is ultimately working toward a more equitable future for their communities and beyond. We’re grateful for the conversations we had and for the opportunity to share their stories.

Here, Winona Bynum, executive director of the Detroit Food Policy Council, shares the history of the DFPC and its current work to improve the health of Detroit residents and families.  

The Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC) is one of more than 300 food policy councils operating across North America. However, unlike the majority of food policy councils, the DFPC came out of community action. The Detroit Black Community Food Security (now Sovereignty) Network works with advocates and activists across the city, including our champion on the Detroit City Council, Rev. Dr. Joann Watson, to bring our organization into existence. We have been working collaboratively with organizations and community members since 2009. We find that when we labor alongside others looking to ensure Detroit’s food system is one in which all in the community can benefit from and thrive, the work is easier, farther-reaching, and longer-lasting.  

Detroit, though often not portrayed as such, is a resilient city where collaborative work is the norm. It has a vibrant food scene. It is a majority Black city, where, because of the Great Migration, many have cultural ties to the south, and it also has a rich history of agriculture going back to before the city’s founding. However, agriculture was not a legally recognized activity in the city for much of that time. In 2013, the City Council voted to amend zoning to allow and recognize growing as a legal activity. The Detroit Food Policy Council was proud to support the community effort to make that happen, which was spearheaded by founding DFPC council member Kathryn Underwood.  

Although we are a Detroit-based food policy council, we work to keep our community abreast of federal and state policies in addition to local ones so that they can make their voices heard. Often, when people hear about the Farm Bill, they don’t think it pertains to cities; they don’t realize that 70 to 80 percent of the Farm Bill goes toward nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A project we partnered with the Center for Science in the Public Interest on a few years back involved talking to families receiving SNAP benefits across the State of Michigan regarding their thoughts on enacting a tax on sugary beverages. That effort yielded valuable information—while those we talked with, by and large, did not favor a tax on sugary beverages, they were very interested in their families being able to afford to eat more vegetables and fruits. Across the state, we heard a call to expand programs like Double Up Food Bucks (run by Fair Food Network in our state) that provide incentives to purchase locally grown produce. From that effort, we are clear that any plan to move away from sugary beverages and processed foods in our state will need to provide people with easier and more affordable access to the healthy foods they want for their families.

We are also working on additional local initiatives. Since the organization’s beginning, we have been concerned with improving healthy food access at our local grocery stores. Since 2016, we have co-convened the Detroit Grocery Coalition (DGC) with Wayne State University. Detroit is widely served by independently owned grocery stores, not the big chains. Instead of looking at this as a deficit, we recognize it as the asset it is. Through projects like the Great Grocer Project and the Healthy Corner Store Initiative. We work closely with the owners and staff to provide technical assistance and community connection so that they can improve in serving the community and strengthen their business. The DGC, which is made up of a blend of community organizations, city liaisons, and community members, looks to recognize grocers that are serving the community well and help those who need to make improvements do so. We measure how well a store does in carrots instead of stars because of the coalition’s focus on positive reinforcement measures and healthy eating. Grocery store health is one of the metrics we track in our annual Food Metrics Report.

The last effort that I’ll touch on is the passing of a local animal-keeping ordinance that took effect in January of this year after more than a decade of work to ensure that community members can raise chickens, ducks, and bees in the work toward food sovereignty and security. We were happy to support connecting with community members to get their voices included in what the city crafted. We also took the lead in making sure Detroiters knew when and where they could express their support for the ordinance when, at long last, it was before the Detroit City Council.  This stemmed from the early work of Katherine Underwood and continued support by Renee Wallace and organizations like Keep Growing Detroit and Georgia Street Community Collective. This also means that policy change often takes a long-time investment and many hands, but it is worth it. We are also looking to close the food loop by supporting efforts to increase policy support and infrastructure for composting in the city.

With all that is happening in the world, continuing the work sometimes seems daunting. However, the Detroit Food Policy Council members, staff, and collaborators will continue the work we started, which is now well into the second decade. And we will continue to work with our values of justice, respect, integrity, inclusion, and transparency in place.