That’s what we do at FoodLab Detroit. We provide technical assistance. We provide mentorship. We provide support to entrepreneurs in Detroit who are looking to use the power of business to solve a problem, a food-related problem, in the city of Detroit. Restaurants, chefs, even mobile vending food trucks, that’s just one path for food entrepreneurs. The other path is something that we call added-value products. That’s even more important because now, not only are we growing the food in the city of Detroit, we also are doing our own manufacturing and production. We’re taking that food and we’re turning it into what we call a consumer packaged good or we’re turning it into what we call a CPG, or an added-value product, that’s made in Detroit and that now could be found on your local grocery store shelves, so we’re extending the shelf life of produce as well. We have entrepreneurs who are creating added-value product in the city of Detroit as well.
I’m not here to say that all of Detroit’s problems are solved, because they’re not. But what I will say is this, is that I do believe that when you are looking at urban agriculture, particularly how we’re looking at urban agriculture and food entrepreneurship and creating a local food movement in the city of Detroit, it has to start with love. It does. You have to love yourself. You have to love your neighbour. You have to love Mother Earth so much that you are willing to be a part of the change that you want to see in your community.
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