Welcome to the agrihood: Lansing’s booming farm scene

Every quadrant of Lansing has an agrihood, where urban farmers grow crops to sell at 20 mid-Michigan’s farmers markets. Or to restaurants. Or to the Eastside Lansing Food Co-op, a neighborhood grocery store that prioritizes locally grown foods.

These uber-local farms are small, independent operations, many spread over several non-contiguous lots. An example is the eastside’s Urbandale Neighborhood, where a dozen or so growers have found farming to be the best and highest use for that 100-year floodplain. 

Many entities straddle a blurry line between farming and gardening. For instance, Lansing’s agrihoods include 54 community gardens operated by the Lansing Garden Project, a 42-year-old Greater Lansing Food Bank program. They range from a corner lot to 8 acres where nearly 2,000 people grow food. Participants have access to gardening education programs, seeds, vegetable transplants and other resources.

 “While many neighbors use their plot to raise food for their families, others sell food to markets,” Garden Project manager Julie Lehman said. She added that many community gardeners are new Americans, often with well-developed farming skills, who raise food to sell to members of their immigrant community, e.g., Burmese, Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Hmong. 

Of Ingham County’s 80 community gardens, 54 are in Lansing. These include Hill Community Garden on the south side, Airport Community Garden on State Road, Paradise, Foster, Pegasus and Eastside Action Center on the east side and Webster Farms, managed by the South Lansing Community Development Association, on Hughes Road.

The Garden Project also supports the Ingham County Community Greenhouse, at the Hill Center, utilized by 18 “entrepreneurial growers.” Farmers whose primary languages include English, Karenni, Burmese, and Swahili are among them.

Finally, the Garden Project also supports home gardeners — about 6,000 across mid-Michigan — who make use of educational classes and annual distribution of seeds, transplants, at-cost materials (e.g., fertilizer) and tool lending library.

The Garden Project is only one of several institutions that provide extensive support to urban growers.

Ingham County Land Bank’s garden program has leased 90 vacant lots to 100 urban growers since 2009. “These gardens convert empty lots and foreclosed houses into beautiful community assets that range from small personal gardens to large-scale urban farms,” its website says. Besides leasing to individuals, the Land Bank sells parcels to long-term gardeners and farmers.

The Land Bank also makes its own compost in collaboration with Eastside Compost for distribution to its 23 acres of growing sites. “Once a gardener purchases a water tote (250gallons), we will fill it up for them for free using a bulk water permit we purchase from BWL,” said garden program coordinator Cody Mohr, who also offers planning and logistical guidance to growers.

Allen Neighborhood Center’s Hunter Park GardenHouse is one of the oldest  and urban demonstration farms in Lansing. Opening in 2008, it offers year-round gardening and farming education in its large, heated greenhouse or on the acre under cultivation in the park. It also operates a grant-funded tool lending library for use by urban farmers.

ANC’s year-round Allen Farmers Market and the Incubator Kitchen Program offer growers additional support. The latter includes several licensed commercial kitchens used by entry-level food entrepreneurs who buy ingredients from local farms. Finally, Veggie Box, which offers a subscription to local food to nearly 700 members, sources from dozens of local farmers and food producers, including nearby urban farms

Lansing Urban Farm Project, founded by retired MSU professors and expert growers Laura Delind and Linda Anderson, established the Urbandale Farm in 2009. The purpose of this half-acre site on Hayford Street was to provide training to aspiring urban farmers. Between 2011 and 2017, 25 people participated in the year-long apprenticeship program, half of whom are still involved in urban agriculture. 

In September, LUFP sold Urbandale Farm to the Fledge Foundation. Fledge director Jerry Norris had realized that people of color operated fewer than 30 of Ingham County’s 1,580 farms. Now, most of Urbandale’s farmers are African Americans.

Upcoming plans include hosting a fundraiser to support small farmers and exploring co-ownership models.  “Actually, everything I am doing is an exploration right now,” Norris said. “The only thing I am certain of is that I have blueberry bushes planted!”

The Eastside Lansing Food Co-op, 1605 E. Kalamazoo St., whose roots go back 40 years, moved into Allen Place in late 2022 to provide walkable, affordable grocery shopping to eastsiders and to prioritize selling locally grown food. ELFCO’s year-round, seven-day-per-week operation has been a boon to small local growers, eager for venues beyond farmers markets with their limited seasons and days.

General manager Milt Shoup notes, “Our commitment to selling locally grown goes beyond a few shelves at the end of an aisle — local food is at the heart of our operations. ELFCO purchases from 20 local farms and makers while another 20 or so come from other parts of the state.” The coop is open to everyone without membership.

Over 20 farmers markets (up from only two markets back in 2003) provide lively venues for farmers to sell their products. These generally operate from May to October, though Allen, Holt and Meridian are all year. 

All of these entities have durable, interwoven connections to one another and have collaborated for years to assist urban farms of varying size and complexity. 

Importantly, the farmers themselves are perhaps the most important source of support to one another — sharing tools, labor, and encouragement. As Cait Schneider, an Urbandale apprenticeship program advocate, pointed out, “People committed to growing food for themselves and the community have found it most beneficial to collaborate with other growers dedicated to doing this work. In this way, we can better avoid burn-out, expand our knowledge and capacity, and build a more food secure community.”

Hillary Coleman, who farms 1991 Greenery Homestead in Old Oakland Neighborhood, echoes those sentiments.

“I’ve lived in Lansing for 13 years, and I have found my community in urban farmers.”

(Joan Nelson is the retired founding executive director of the Allen Neighborhood Center. Her column appears monthly.)