Brightmoor Community Organizers Are Crowdfunding A Commercial Kitchen

The blighted Brightmoor community is inching closer to food security through a variety of urban gardening projects. Now, with the help of an Indiegogo campaign, Brightmoor Artisan's Cooperative and Neighbors Building Brightmoor are a little over halfway to meeting their $10,000 funding goal that would bring a community kitchen to one of the city's most severely depressed neighborhoods. The grassroots organizers have already purchased a vacant building at 22735 Fenkell Ave., which includes equipment suitable for a commercial kitchen.

Community kitchens are playing a key role in the development of Detroit's popup restaurant community, with organizations like Detroit Kitchen Connect helping local food entrepreneurs overcome the obstacles of accessing commercially licensed kitchen facilities that are necessary for food prep.

The Brightmoor organizations, which were recently featured by Oprah, are currently raising money through crowdfunding for phase two of the kitchen operation: rehabbing the abandoned property. Despite strong community support, the organizers still face obstacles. The lawyer of the property's former owner contacted Brightmoor Artisan's Cooperative demanding the forgotten equipment. "He has had not paid taxes on the property in many years, knew we were going to buy it, and NOW wants the equipment," says an organization representative on the cooperative's Facebook page.