Detroit Food Academy

Mission: To inspire young Detroiters through culinary arts and food entrepreneurship.

Detroit Food Academy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that envisions a Detroit where youth are powerful – leading, changing, and co-creating the future of Detroit’s food system through culinary arts and food entrepreneurship. From cooking delicious healthy meals for friends and family to facilitating complex conversations with community to developing artisan food projects from scratch to market, students learn by transforming their ideas into reality. Through this process, they grow as holistic leaders who are healthy, connected, and powerful to affect change in our communities and beyond.

Detroit Food Academy uses the universal, connective power of food as a catalyst for youth to form community amongst their peers and with caring adult mentors. At all our program sites, Detroit Food Academy fosters safe places for students (ages 10-24) to show up as themselves, learn important life skills, and express their creativity. Driven by youth voice and guided by caring adult mentors, our curriculum unpacks the systems that shape the food we eat, cook, and have access to through hands-on cooking, social emotional learning activities, and group discussions.

The Afterschool Leadership Program runs Sept-May, guiding 300+ middle and high schoolers through a culinary journey. It provides weekly culturally-relevant, accessible, and empowering culinary education to youth at schools and community sites. Youth cook together in class, explore the local food system, and are offered take-home ingredients kits to continue learning at home. Our curriculum includes knife skills, grocery stores, wellness, sustainability, world cuisines, and food stories. The food we eat and have access to helps us understand our history, our communities, our climate, and our bodies. We defer to youth to lead conversations that unpack complicated topics of power, privilege, identity, and culture.