2024 Teen Leadership After School Program Highlights

Thursday, May 16 marked the last day of the after-school program for our Teen Leadership Program. We wanted to take a moment to share some of the highlights from the past eight months and recognize all of the hard work done by our young food justice leaders!

Deepening Knowledge
The fall and winter are quieter months on the farm, but our teens were hard at work putting the farm to bed, learning to cook new recipes with our fall harvest (we loved the butternut squash soup), and deepening their knowledge about plants and food systems through workshops. A few fan-favorite workshops included plant families and intercropping lessons led by our Youth Programs Manager, Esha Biswas, and a food waste series led by our Teen and Schools Manager, Jenny Pritchett. Our teens are inspired by stories of Indigenous cooking, farming, and food system practices- some of our favorite documentaries on these topics included Seed: The Untold Story and Gather. They also participated in a corn nixtamalization workshop where they used dried corn from the farm and the ancient practice of nixtamalization to make fresh tortillas!

Community Engagement
Over the school year, the group participated in many different community engagement events. They did informative tabling events at YCS schools, the UMS Freight House events, and Growing Hope’s Earth Day celebration where they taught community members about native plants and how to make seed balls. They led two intergenerational cooking workshops at the Ypsi Senior Center where they partnered with local seniors to cook simple, nutritious meals! Growing Hope became a participant in the Neutral Zone’s Youth Driven Spaces Immersion Program, which is a year-long program that aids youth-serving agencies to increase youth voice, youth decision-making, and leadership in their programs and organizations. The teens have been learning facilitation and community-building skills, and Growing Hope adult staff have been learning how to include youth voices at every level of our organization. Through the Neutral Zone, the teens also designed and delivered a “ Sipping Self-care: Homemade Herbal Tea” workshop at the Youth Driven Spaces Conference, which was a huge success!

Seeding, planting, and growing
All the work our young people do is centered around our farm and growing food. Even in the dead of winter, they were learning about fungi and how to grow oyster mushrooms inside our farmhouse in buckets, thanks to Fungi Revival! Throughout the winter, the teens sorted and cataloged over 4,500 seed packets that were then donated to our friends at the Ypsi District Library for their Seed Library that is shared with the community! As spring approached, the teens began crop planning and seed starting for The Oasis and Sharing Gardens. They used crop planning techniques taught by our Farm Manager, Christopher. They learned how to soil block, direct sow, transplant seedlings, and how to plan and plant our garden beds! Their stewardship of The Oasis and Sharing Gardens will continue into the Summer Teen Leadership Program.

We are incredibly proud of this group of young people and grateful for their hard work, commitment to the community and the local food system, and the perspective and joy they bring to our organization! In June our current group of teens will be joined by seven new teen crew members for a summer full of learning, growing, and leading!

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Tea, Honey, and the Gift of Local Food

By Julius Buzzard • April 4, 2025

A Conversation with Growing Hope’s Teen Leaders

Honoring the Earth, Honoring Our Farmers

By Julius Buzzard • April 1, 2025

Happy Earth Month! Spring arrives with a quiet urgency. The thawing ground reminds us of the resilience of our land, of the ancestors who tilled it, and of the communities who still gather to nurture its abundance. But this year, as we step into Earth Month, I carry a deep and growing concern for the future of our food system—one that has been shaken by policy decisions that threaten the very foundation of food sovereignty in Ypsilanti and beyond. The recent funding freezes and budget cuts—from the loss of the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program to the closure of USDA offices—are not just bureaucratic shifts; they are existential threats to our farmers, our food access programs, and the families who rely on them. I have sat across the table from our legislators, pressing them on these cuts and their real-life consequences. Time and time again, I have asked them: How will our small farmers recover from the sudden disappearance of revenue they had come to rely on? How will low-income communities access fresh, local produce when the programs designed to bridge that gap are gutted? The answers, when they come at all, ring hollow. And the weight of these decisions falls heaviest on Black farmers. Over the past few months, I have spoken to Black farmers across the state who have lost tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. Each has asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation if they speak out. We’ve spent years investing in trust—through policy change, the Washtenaw County Black Farmers Fund, and steadfast community advocacy—and now, that trust has been shattered. The jar that held every marble of faith and progress has been smashed to the ground. I am deeply concerned about the long-term implications of these actions—not just for our farmers but for the fight for equity in our food system as a whole. If we continue down this path, we will see more land lost, more livelihoods destroyed, and more barriers to sovereignty erected. But let me be clear: while these attacks are meant to dishearten us, they will not stop us. Hope is not lost. We are building and investing in a local food system that ensures the right to food for all. We are planting, growing, and sharing. We are organizing, advocating, and refusing to be silenced. Our programs at Growing Hope continue to provide fresh, local produce to our neighbors, even as the environment shifts around us. We continue to uplift local growers, ensuring they have the resources they need to weather this storm as they have weathered past storms and will weather future storms. We demand that our legislators listen—not just to us but to the land itself, which has long whispered the truth of what justice looks like. This Earth Month, as we honor and commune with Mother Earth and the ancestors who fought for our right to grow, we reaffirm our commitment to a just and sovereign food system. We will not let short-sighted policies or political indifference derail the work of generations. And we ask you to join us—whether by growing, sharing, advocating, or simply refusing to look away. In solidarity, Julius P.S. If you’re looking for a practical way to participate and support our local food system, visit and become a friend of the market , where we’re reimagining how we invest in and support growers, eaters, and everything in between.