FoodLab Detroit: Wrapping up Week 2

Hi, Happy Wednesday!

I already touched on my site placement working with the non-profit organization FoodLab Detroit in my last blog post, but I really want to dive a bit more in depth about it because I’m in love with their purpose.

FoodLab Detroit is dedicated to food entrepreneurs who operate businesses with a strong belief that good food means it is local, seasonal, healthy, and culturally appropriate. FoodLab has many partners and member businesses that play an important role in creating healthy food access all over Detroit by growing the good food business.

Some of those six members are the African American culinary artists that are participating in the Dream Cafe that starts tomorrow. In my opinion, the Dream Cafe is much more than a pop-up restaurant. I think it will serve as an experiment in running a restaurant based on the principles of our movements: cooperation, sustainability, network building (especially between local farmers and these small food businesses), and interdependence. I hope that through partnerships with urban farmers, local food businesses, and chefs within the Detroit area, we will contribute to capacity building and a vibrant living local food economy while centering around people of color. I think the main idea of this Dream Cafe event is that it’s not just one event, it’s a way to make it known that we are a part of Detroit, and this is just the beginning of a new wave. Anything great you want, you have to step outside of the box for, and we are because an “event” like the Dream Cafe has never been facilitated before.

Noteworthy things happen when you step outside of your comfort zone.

I’m envisioning and affirming that through the process, the practice, and the post-event evaluation, the Dream Cafe will serve as a model of how other, large and national conferences and gatherings can participate in sustainable and locally-accountable food systems, tackling the consistent challenge of aligning food sourcing with FoodLab’s social justice principles. A big part of my summer research project is using this Dream Cafe event as a case study on the production of an event like this. I want to see us make an honest effort to address some of our Detroit community’s most significant challenges. I say an “honest” effort, because these problems cannot be solved alone, and absolutely not in one day. However, as a community, through partnership and cooperation, we will be able to produce and make this vision possible over time.

My main summer research project is to create a guide for “How To” plan a sustainable event. I have yet to gather more details on it, but I think it is going to focus specifically on events in Detroit and it will be modeled after some of the sustainable events that FoodLab helps facilitate this summer.

After spending almost two weeks living and working in Detroit, I have accomplished the goal of being able to pick up my carpool group without using GPS guidance! I have become familiar with the layout of the streets around Midtown thanks to my renewed interest in running. I like stumbling upon the parts of Detroit that are filled with interesting murals and colorful works of art because it’s like a pop of color and it’s beautiful. I’m still loving working at the Green Garage because of its genuinely friendly atmosphere and commitment to environmental sustainability. If you take a plate from the facility and walk to a taco bar right around the corner, they give you $1 off your tacos and there’s hardly any food or material waste since you brought your own dish!

I can’t wait to continue learning and appreciating this city and this program.

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Scarlett Bickerton