Michigan State University faculty and students are producing a documentary on a vision of Flint as a healthier, greener city. It will show the challenges of bringing fresh produce to a food desert, feeding schools, providing educational options and battling bureaucracy.
On Wednesdays through July, Great Lakes Echo will run a segment expected to become a building block of the finished story. You can help.
The Greening of Flint main page is where to post questions, suggest interviews, make comments or offer suggestions to help producers tell the story of a city trying to re-grow its roots literally and figuratively as a model for post-industrial revitalization. It also contains links to each of the published segments and tells which ones are coming up.
This week:
Each summer, the Mr. Rogers Garden program trains dozens of at-risk youth to grow, harvest and sell vegetables at Flint’s Farmer’s market. At this garden site at Ebenezer Ministries in Burton, the program’s director, Greg Gaines, debuts a refurbished ice cream truck that he’s outfitted to bring produce to senior citizens unable to go grocery shopping.
Related stories:
Urban pioneers turn vacant lots verdant in Detroit
Inmates harvest food, savings, education and jobs from jail gardens
Growing Power sprouts in Wisconsin
Farm to Spork: Kids see fruits of partnering schools with farms
Shifting carbon from roads to roofs