Seed Award Spotlight: Growing Hope

This series features recipients from the most recent round of Seed Awards, sharing their paths to entrepreneurship, the values that guide their work, and the ways their businesses contribute to stronger, more resilient communities. Each profile offers insight into the leadership, creativity, and commitment required to build and sustain food businesses that serve both local markets and the broader public good.

In the most recent award cycle, Michigan Good Food Fund distributed nearly $300,000 in seed grants to 18 Michigan-based food and farm businesses. These investments extend beyond capital support, recognizing the essential role these enterprises play in strengthening Michigan’s food system, advancing equity, and supporting long-term economic growth.

Among the awardees is Growing Hope, a Ypsilanti-based nonprofit that has spent more than two decades building a healthier, more equitable local food system through community gardening, farmers markets, youth leadership programs, and support for emerging food entrepreneurs. Their work continues to redefine what community-rooted food access and food justice can look like.

Keep reading to learn more about Growing Hope and their mission to grow not just fresh food, but long-lasting community resilience.

Shared by: Julius Buzzard, Growing Hope, Ypsilanti, Mich.

What does being selected as a Seed Award winner mean to you personally, and how does it reflect on the journey of your business so far?

Being selected affirms years of collective labor to build a food system where our community, especially Black, immigrant, and working-class entrepreneurs, has the infrastructure to thrive. This award reflects the journey of transforming an underutilized downtown building into a home for cooperative enterprise, cultural food traditions, and community-rooted economic power.

In what ways will the Seed Award funding support your immediate and long-term business goals?

Immediately, the award accelerates critical planning and design work for our new Accelerator Kitchen and storefront, and deepens the wraparound supports that help entrepreneurs stabilize and scale. Long term, it strengthens the full pipeline from farm to market, allowing early-stage businesses to reach wholesale, enter new markets, and build durable wealth within Ypsilanti’s food economy.

Can you share your vision for the positive changes this award will enable you to make in your business and the broader community?

This award will catalyze a space where emerging food entrepreneurs can produce, sell, and distribute culturally rooted foods while keeping dollars circulating locally. It moves us toward a community where ownership replaces extraction and where local producers are woven into schools, markets, and institutions. The impact is not just economic; it’s a shift toward sovereignty and self-determination.

What led you to start your business? What motivates you to do what you do?

Growing Hope was born from the belief that every community deserves access to local produce and the dignity of controlling its own food system. I’m motivated by the people who walk through our doors with a dream, folks who want to live their values, nourish their community, and build businesses that strengthen a circular, community-rooted food economy. What drives me is the possibility of investing in generational health and well-being, and creating the conditions for our neighbors to grow food, create livelihoods, and shape a food system that truly belongs to them.

Want to try produce from Growing Hope’s urban farm or check out their incubator kitchen? Visit their website to find their Ypsilanti location and learn more about their services. Don’t forget to follow them on Instagram.