About Us

For more than a decade, against a backdrop of extreme poverty, the Oakland Avenue Farm has been a stabilizing force in Detroit’s historic North End. By growing healthy food, hosting educational programs, creating cultural gathering spaces and generating jobs, the Farm is achieving its vision for a vibrant civic commons that will continue to benefit the neighborhood for decades to come. The Farm is a workforce development project of North End Christian Community Development Corporation, a 501c3 not-for profit.

Current Programs

FARMERS MARKET

The Farm grows 33+ varieties of vegetables and fruit using organic practices, produces value-added products—including herbal teas, eggs, spices, and jams—and employs several area residents. In addition to selling produce at its Saturday market, the Farm offers a “Harvest on Demand” option, allowing neighbors to pick up their orders at the Farm’s Community House at their convenience. Since 2010, our seasonal Saturday Farm Market has been part of Detroit Community Markets, a network of farmer markets coordinated by the Detroit Eastern Market Corporation.

SHOP DETROIT FARMS

An online marketplace platform for black and brown local-food growers, Shop Detroit Farms is a generative collaboration between D-Town Farm and Oakland Avenue Urban Farm to create to a racially just local-food system. This one-year pilot will grow to include other local area farmers and food producers as we work together to improve access to nutritionally dense, culturally relevant, and seasonal food for Detroit, by Detroit.

YOUTH

As the hub for the first urban 4-H chapter in Michigan, we’re helping youth improve learning and leadership skills through educational programs and applied research in partnership with Michigan State Fair and Michigan State University Extension. Through our partnership with the Michigan State Fair Urban Youth Council we’ve brought more than 100 urban and rural youth together to share knowledge, gain agriculture and animal-husbandry skills and bridge cultural divides. Oakland Avenue Urban Farm executive director Jerry Hebron serves as coordinator for MI State Fair Agriculture Scholarship Program, and has helped to connect 100+ local youth to more than $200,000 in academic scholarships. Through a partnership with Project Play, the Farm also recently distributed 1600 free sports-equipment kits for area youth.

DETROIT CULTIVATOR COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

The Farm’s desire to boost neighborhood self-determination led to the formation of the Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust—Detroit’s first community land trust. By recently transferring its property to the Land Trust, the Farm is helping to address the real problem of gentrification and displacement in the North End by securing nearly six acres of land for the permanent benefit and empowerment of the neighborhood.

BLACK FARMERS LAND FUND

In Collaboration with Keep Growing Detroit and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Oakland Avenue Urban Farm launched in 2020 to help 30 new black farmers purchase land in the City of Detroit. In 2021 we raised more than $100,000 to help an additional 40 black farmers purchase land and make capital improvements that will contribute to their financial sustainability.

NORTHEND CO-OP ACADEMY

In Partnership with the Detroit Community Wealth Fund and the Detroit Justice Center we launched the Northend Co-Op Academy to bring worker-ownership to the the Oakland Avenue retail commercial corridor. The co-op academy is a 15-week community-based cooperative training and development program that includes brick and mortar placement in the North End’s commercial corridor. The cooperative businesses are by and for residents, creating local accessible jobs, and businesses that are reflective of the needs and desires of the local community.

 HOT MEAL DISTRIBUTION

In partnership with local Chef Phil Jones, Chef Maxcel Hardy, the Horatio Williams Center, Make Food Not Waste, Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, and Food Rescue US we served 25,000 hot meals to individuals impacted by the pandemic. between March 2020 and May 2020. During this time Oakland Avenue Urban Farm also distributed, door-to-door, well over 3,000 hot meals weekly to the most vulnerable citizens in the North End. In October 2021 we received additional funding through the Cares Act and the Detroit Food Policy Council that enabled us to continue this effort through December 2020 with the addition of personal protective equipment and virtual cooking classes led by Chef Phil Jones that were attended by over 3,000 individuals.

EMERGENCY FOOD PANTRY

During the height of the pandemic we pivoted our operations to serve as an emergency food distribution hub, receiving commercial food donations and repackaging food for distribution to needy Detroit residents and other Detroit food pantries; distributions included one memorable donation of 100,000 pounds of frozen chicken. This effort, in partnership with Hazon Detroit, helped to ensure that families had the supplies needed feed themselves, to wash their hands, clean their environment, and take care of their own daily hygiene needs. We also provided over 5,000 face masks and hand sanitizer donated by the Detroit Giving Group

FOOD SECURE DETROIT

In partnership with the Detroit Food Policy Council we helped to launch Food Secure Detroit to address food-access limitations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We became a weekly CSA food box distribution site, coupling food boxes from the USDA with fresh produce from our farm and other local growers. Each week, 100 families received staple items such as milk, eggs, cheese, paired with exceptional fresh produce, herbs, as well as PPE kits and home cleaning supplies.