Local Food Movement Sprouts in Detroit

By Louis Aguilar

They reflect a growing movement of entrepreneurs, urban farmers, niche markets and independent restaurants that are trying to sell food in part by tapping into Detroit's food culture and the local-food movement.

"The time is now to take your local-food idea and see how far you can go with it," said People's Pierogi owner Kimberly Stricker, who runs her own marketing firm. "Overall, people are getting so much more informed and eager to find quality local food, and I'm really happy to chase that and put my own twist on it."

Some businesses, like McClure's Pickles, Valentine Vodka or Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co., have the traditional goal of getting into as many stores and restaurants as possible.

Great Lakes Coffee, a Bloomfield Hills-based company, specializes in selling "fair trade" organic coffee, a product imported from developing countries that meets environmental and labor standards. Besides selling products from Rwanda and Guatemala, it promotes its Mackinac Island and Motor City blends.

Valentine Vodka is a Detroit micro-distiller that proclaims it is rekindling the city's tradition of supplying alcohol. Detroit gangs were notorious for the bootlegging of alcohol from Canada during Prohibition in the 1920s.

Others are tapping into local-food suppliers as part of their marketing. A growing number of restaurants -- such as Mudgie's Deli in Corktown and Foran's Grand Trunk Pub downtown -- proudly display on their menus how much of their food is made with ingredients from local farmers -- many of whom often farm within Detroit.

"Detroit is a hotbed of the local-food movement," said Kami Pothukuchi, a Wayne State University professor of geography and urban planning.

Two years ago, Pothukuchi helped found SEED Wayne, whose mission is to build "sustainable food systems" in Detroit.

Among other things, SEED Wayne started a farmers market on Wayne State's campus that operates every Wednesday and one on the third Thursday of each month at Wayne State's Medical School.

In its first season last year, which went from June to October, the Wednesday market generated nearly $250,000 in sales and averaged 1,000 visitors a week, Pothukuchi said.

"And there is every indication from our June sales and attendance that we will break last year's numbers," she said.

Detroit residents spend $975 million annually on groceries, and up to $210 million of that is spent outside the city, according to the Detroit Fresh Food Access Initiative, a study released two years ago on behalf of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

The study found about 550,000 people in Detroit live in a "food desert," meaning they must travel twice as far to reach the closest mainstream grocer as they do to get to a fringe location, such as a party store, gas station or fast food restaurant.

That's why farms like the D-Farm and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network were born, said Jackie Hunt, vice president of a northwest Detroit food coalition.

Among other things, it operates a 2-acre organic farm in Rouge Park.

"We're not gardeners. We're farmers trying to bring healthy food to our community and beyond," Hunt said as she operated the D-Farm stall at the Wayne State market last week.

"In our neighborhood, you can go 20 blocks and not find a grocery store. So we may have done this out of necessity, but now it's very nice to see how far we can take our products."

The city is trying to help. In May, Mayor Dave Bing unveiled a $1 million Green Grocer Project to help nurture the city's independent grocers.

The city would use up to $500,000 in federal block grant funds to create a revolving loan fund to finance store improvements for Detroit's mostly independent grocers.

About five stores may receive loans with the initial money, city officials said.