Back in June, I had the opportunity to teach a container gardening class to people who live in the Woodmere Ridge and Carson Square apartment complexes in Traverse City. Both locations offer housing and support to those with lived experience of homelessness, domestic violence, and other special needs. The Woodmere Ridge Food Pantry, which hosted the garden class, is an important resource for residents, who often lack access to nutritious food for a variety of reasons.
 
That sunny day, I helped drill drainage holes into about 50 5-gallon buckets, then filled each with a mixture of potting soil and compost as I chatted with class attendees. Some young people there had never seen a tomato plant before and were surprised and delighted to learn you can grow one on a back porch. Other people were longtime gardeners, and they entertained me with stories of chasing deer and chipmunks away from plants in their pasts, and advised me on the precise watering and fertilizing schedule they’d used to grow food. 

No matter their experience level, everyone in class that day was excited to learn more about growing vegetables. They were also in need of the basic items required to grow food, like buckets, soil, seeds and watering cans, so they could grow food for themselves. Thanks to Groundwork’s Building Resilient Communities (BRC) program and the hard work of Shannon Saunders, Woodmere Ridge Food Pantry Coordinator, we were able to work together to increase healthy food access for the residents and have some fun along the way.

Groundwork has seen a continued need to address food access throughout its 29-year history as an organization and its 22 years in food systems work. The lack of access to affordable and nutritious food in Michigan leads to differences in health outcomes that affect all residents in the state. We pay more in food insecurity-related healthcare costs than other states in the country as well, according to the state’s Food Security Council’s report released in 2022. These healthcare costs are one reason why we focus our efforts on not just increasing the amount of food available to those in need, but rather increasing “nutrition security”—which for us means focusing on the amount of healthy food available, and sourcing as much of it as possible from farmers within our own communities.

The Building Resilient Communities program benefits food insecure people and their families by increasing the amount of nutritious food in schools, food pantries, community centers, and medical practices, and it also equips farmers and food producers to be able to supply more nutritious food to those in need. This work aims to disrupt the “perpetual cycle of income restriction, food insecurity and adverse health outcomes” that the Food Security Council report clearly describes by ensuring that emergency food providers, schools, community centers and health clinics have the infrastructure and education necessary for distributing healthy food. When people have access to healthy food, they are able to increase the amount of nutrients they consume and can improve their health.

How does the Building Resilient Communities program work? Eligible sites include schools, food pantries, community centers, farms, and even farm markets and concessions—really, any organization that has the desire to increase the amount of healthy food available in their community. Site coordinators are paired with a Groundwork employee from the very beginning, and program participants focus on factors that greatly affect the ability to provide healthy food, like infrastructure and education, when they design their program plan. Additionally, sites commit to adopting a longer term policy that supports healthier food environments and local food procurement beyond the one-year scope of the project.

Examples of successful past projects include a school cafeteria purchasing a food processor to cook meals from scratch, while prioritizing local options when sourcing fresh produce; a food pantry purchasing grocery store shelves to prominently display fruit and vegetable offerings, while adopting nutrition guidelines for future food procurement; and a senior center purchasing a range, salad spinner, food sealer, educational materials, and healthy food signage, while committing to increasing fruit and vegetable intake, reduced sodium, and homemade healthy meals.

Since 2021, Groundwork has been operating this program primarily in Northwest Lower Michigan and has worked with over 30 sites. In 2024, we expanded the program to the Grand Rapids area and Detroit, thanks for funding from the W. K. Kellogg foundation. Today, we are thrilled to announce that the Michigan Health Endowment Fund has chosen to fund expansion of Building Resilient Communities to select areas statewide through their Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles grant programming. The Michigan Health Endowment Fund works to improve the health and wellness of Michigan residents and reduce the cost of healthcare, with a special focus on children and seniors. You can find more information about the Health Fund at mihealthfund.org.

In the long run, Building Resilient Communities aims to promote consumption of healthy, local foods; build agency of food service workers; lower the incidence of chronic diseases; contribute to strong local economies; and establish cross-sector relationships for vibrant, livable communities. Over the next few months, we’ll share inspiring stories and spotlights from sites around the state that are wrapping up projects, and show how a $2,000 investment can have outsized impacts when it comes to feeding those in the community healthy, local food.

Christina Barkel, Groundwork Food Equity Specialist
christina.barkel@groundworkcenter.org