The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI, ) is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, dedicated to urban agriculture and

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

. MUFI is based in the North End district of central

, where it operates a large multipurpose site. It also has a presence in Woodward Village, a separate neighborhood in Detroit.

History

Tyson Gersh and Darin McLeskey, then-students at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, founded the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative in 2011. They met at a meeting for

The Detroit Partnership The Detroit Partnership (DP), known as The Detroit Project until 2008, is a student-run organization at the University of Michigan with the mission of connecting the Ann Arbor and Detroit communities through active service-learning. Each year, th ...

, a student group that fosters relations between the university and Detroit. The first project for MUFI was the establishment of their main site in the North End district of central

. Since its founding, most of MUFI's efforts have gone to the development of this site. In 2012, MUFI officially registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. On November 11, 2016, MUFI announced its plans to implement the first sustainable urban " agrihood" in the United States. This plan is an extension of the work the nonprofit has been doing since 2011 at the North End site, in which MUFI's existing agricultural campus is positioned as the centerpiece of a larger mixed-use development, with a focus on residential. The first of its kind in the United States, MUFI's sustainable urban agrihood is a model for its mission to use urban agriculture as a platform to promote education, sustainability and community in an effort to uplift and empower urban neighborhoods, solve social problems, and develop a broader model for redevelopment. Currently, the North End site functions primarily as an urban farm and community activity area. MUFI intends to establish a community resource center at the site in the future.

References

External links

* * {{LittleSis Service organizations based in the United States 2012 establishments in Michigan Urban agriculture