In the Spotlight: Growing Hope | Live 'n Ypsi

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For our “In the Spotlight” series, we’re shining a light on community resources around the Ypsilanti area, sharing how to best find support and give support to our friends and neighbors. This month’s highlight: Growing Hope.

Growing Hope fosters an equitable & sustainable local food system to grow, sell, buy, prepare and eat nourishing food within our community. We connected with Julius Buzzard, Executive Director of Growing Hope, to highlight how they’re supporting local food entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and ways you can get involved.

Thanks Julius for joining us! What do you want us to know about Growing Hope and who you serve?

Growing Hope exists because food is sacred, and everyone deserves dignified access to it. We serve Ypsilanti and Southeast Michigan, centering BIPOC, youth, and working-class families who have too often been left out of the food system. We’re not just about filling plates, we’re about shifting power, building sovereignty, and ensuring that our neighbors can grow, share, and sell food in ways that create generational health and community wealth.


What services or programs might people not know you provide?

Many people know us for our farmers markets and gardening programming, but fewer realize we’re also deeply invested in food entrepreneurship and youth leadership. Through our Accelerator Kitchen, we support food businesses to move from cottage food to licensed production, creating pathways to ownership and economic mobility. At the same time, our youth programs equip young people with the skills to grow food, cook, and even lead markets. These programs aren’t just about workforce development, they’re about cultivating leaders who see themselves as changemakers in the food system.


How can someone seeking support access or request your services?

We work hard to keep things accessible. Folks can connect with us directly at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, visit our website, or reach out by phone or email. Whether you’re a senior gardener looking for tools, a youth wanting to join a program, or a food entrepreneur exploring the Accelerator Kitchen, we aim to meet people where they are and walk with them toward where they want to go.


How can community members who want to provide support get involved?

Food sovereignty is a collective project; it takes all of us. People can get involved by volunteering on the farm,, joining us at community events, donating to sustain our work, or advocating for policies that advance food justice. Each act of solidarity moves us closer to a food system rooted in equity and dignity.


Do you have any special events coming up you’d like to share?

Yes, we’re especially excited for Chefs in the Garden on September 28. It’s an intimate evening where local chefs prepare a meal sourced from our farm and local growers. Seats are limited!


Do you want to spotlight any of your community partners? How have they contributed to move your mission forward?

Absolutely! We’re honored to be part of a powerful network of urban farms and food sovereignty leaders across Michigan. Through partnerships with U-M Campus Farm, Detroit Black Food Sovereignty Network, Cadillac Urban Garden, and Oakland Avenue Farm, we’re co-hosting an urban agriculture internship that equips young people with hands-on experience, leadership skills, and a regional perspective on the movement. These collaborations remind us that food sovereignty is about building connections across communities, so the work in Ypsilanti is woven into a larger fabric of resilience and justice.


What else should we know about Growing Hope and the work you’re doing?

This moment in the food system is urgent. Federal cuts are threatening access to nutrition and programs that families depend on. At the same time, we’re seeing extraordinary local leadership rising up in response. Growing Hope is here to incubate that movement, to stand with community members as they reclaim their agency, and to replace harmful systems with ones that nourish both people and planet. We believe that when communities recognize the right to food, they are also more just, more resilient, and more joyful.

Contact Growing Hope or learn more about programs and ways to get involved:

Website: GrowingHope.net
Phone Numbers:
- Growing Hope Urban Farm: (734) 786-8401
- Ypsilanti Farmers Market: (734) 707-1795

We’d like to give a special thank you to Julius for connecting with us to spotlight community resources like Growing Hope.

View the latest spotlights and more of what Ypsilanti has to offer at LiveNypsi.com.