Keep Growing Detroit

Non-profit OrganizationsUnited States11-50 Employees

At KGD, we believe that when Detroiters grow their own food, they grow more than fruits and vegetables - they grow power, resilience, and belonging.

For over a decade, KGD has been building a citywide ecosystem of gardens and farms that now includes nearly 3,000 sites across Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park. Our mission is bold: to cultivate a food-sovereign Detroit where the majority of the fruits and vegetables consumed in our city are grown by Detroiters themselves.

We pursue this mission through programs that nurture gardeners at every stage. Our Garden Resource Program (GRP) provides seeds, plants, compost, tools, and hands-on support to thousands of family, school, community, and market gardens each year. Our team conducts site visits, hosts workdays, and offers workshops to ensure new gardens thrive and existing ones continue to flourish.

Through Grown in Detroit (GID), we help growers move from backyard gardens to market-ready businesses. With mentorship, training, and marketing support, Detroiters find pathways into entrepreneurship and economic opportunity.

The KGD Farm, our 1.38-acre site in the Eastern Market, is a living classroom, production hub, and gathering space. Here, hundreds of thousands of seedlings are grown annually for the GRP, and Detroiters gather for seasonal workshops, community events, and shared meals that reconnect us to cultural foodways.

Our education programs span generations: from early childhood garden-based learning to youth apprenticeships, from cooking classes to the Gathering of Growers, a monthly event blending ancestral knowledge, seasonal practice, and collective resilience.

KGD is rare. Few organizations in the country coordinate such a large-scale, long-term network of community food production while centering equity, sovereignty, and cultural connection. We are not only feeding people today, but equipping communities with the tools, traditions, and networks to feed themselves for generations to come.

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