Food Justice

The Food Justice projects include community gardens, aquaponics and green space.

The aquaponics project will be a showcase for the United States Social Forum 2010 for local solutions to food insecurity and local agriculture. Most importantly, the aquaponics project will provide fresh pollution free fish in a community setting to Detroit residence. USSF volunteers will work with the Agriculture Network, East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC) and community residence to construct the ponds and greenhouses need for the aquaponics system. This project will be a platform for gainful employment and entrepreneur opportunities. Ultimately this Project will grow: 40-50lbs of greens each week and 20 lbs of pollution free fish each week. Funds needed: $50,000 - $200,000 (depending on sites – volunteers are encouraged to continue working with this project long after the forum has left the city).

USSF Volunteers will have the opportunity to work side by side with Community gardening organizations like the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and local gardeners. Due to the lack of fresh and local produce in the city, hundreds of community members have responded by growing and selling their own food. There are about 200 community gardens in the city of Detroit and they are rapidly growing. We would like assistance with prepping soil and planting crops in community gardens that ask for assistance, and increasing our partnerships between community gardens and local restaurants to increase the availability of local food and the viability of the local economy, and use these restaurants as vendors for the US Social Forum. Materials needed: Donated gardening supplies and any donated funds to buy supplies. Volunteers needed: 5 – 50 per day with (or willing to learn) gardening skills (before or during forum).

Outdoor classrooms are designed for place-based education, where students can install their own art projects, grow (and sell) their own food, build their own play space, and nurturing healthy ecosystems by growing native plants. This summer Nsoroma Institute and Barbara Jordan School will be constructing student-designed outdoor classrooms at their schools, with the help of their students, teachers, parents, and community members. USSF volunteer Work Brigades are invited to work side by side with nearby community, students, school staff and the University of Michigan landscape design program in this construction process for these innovative outdoor classrooms and to help build a more healthy, imaginative, and sustainable school environment the way students envisioned it.