Know your food.
Know your growers.
Grow our city.

A CLEARER PICTURE

Food access changes. Our understanding should, too.

A farm stand opens. A neighborhood shop closes. A grower changes their selling day. Knowing where food is available means keeping up with the people and places that supply it.

A 2024 study on the landscape of food in Detroit found that 615 “food outlets” - places that Detroiters once accessed for food - closed between 2013 and 2023. The study also challenges broad “food desert” labels for Detroit as food outlet counts alone do not tell a household whether food meets its needs. But this finding raises concerns about food access in the city of Detroit. Read the Detroit food landscape study.

The City of Detroit reached a similar conclusion from a different direction. Its 2025 Community Health Assessment data briefs, built with input from more than 6,000 Detroiters, informed a Community Health Improvement Plan with four priorities: access to healthy food, maternal and infant health, access to healthcare, and reducing chronic conditions. Read the Community Health Assessment data briefs and the Community Health Improvement Process.

DRN focuses on two practical parts of that picture: making local produce and selling details easier to find and keeping people up to date on food-related community events.

Read alongside the ten-year loss of food outlets, the City’s priorities point to the same work: equitable access, environmental justice, and community connection. Those are what we aim to become a better conduit for, for the people in Detroit.

THREE EXPERIENCES · ONE LOCAL NETWORK

An accessible core. Room to grow.

A farmer can grow, sell, or do both. Their tools should fit their work.

BUILT FROM LISTENING

Farmers named a need. Quinn brought the idea.

As Quinn transitions from technology into urban agriculture full time, she is connecting her technical program management, UX research experience, years of community gardening, and time spent as a Grow Moore Produce Cooperative Farm Apprentice with needs farmers have shared with her directly. Detroit Root Network began with her idea. Nile translated that vision into this working product through project leadership, technical business analysis, and AI-assisted development.

We take inspiration from the growers we have connected with in the Grow Moore Produce Cooperative and as well as other growers in the city of Detroit. We are also inspired by the major community partners that support Detroit’s urban agriculture community including Keep Growing Detroit, where growers throughout the city have access to seeds and seedlings, tools, and educational programming to support their goals; Eastern Market, where growers and neighbors connect through food since 1891, and the City of Detroit’s Office of Sustainability, which assists Detroit growers in their goals to help feed and beautify the city. DRN is an independent project, transforming that commitment to accessible connection into a digital tool.

PUBLIC HEALTH & COMMUNITY IMPACT

Put Detroit first. Build value we can show.

We believe that when we put Detroit first, we all win. Our next step is to test that belief with farmers and neighbors: Can people find useful information? Are listings current? Can farmers keep them updated without added burden? Do volunteer connections turn into participation?

DRN is a beta, with Farmers Grow in planning. Better food access and stronger community connections are the outcomes we are working toward; we have not yet measured a change in food insecurity or health outcomes.