Urban garden to produce fresh food for Hoffman’s Deli in Flint

By Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal

March 23, 2010, 11:11AM

FLINT, Michigan — A Flint deli may soon be able to pick fresh sandwich toppings from its own urban backyard.

A University of Michigan-Flint project to renovate a historic house on Garland Street has added plans to start an urban garden that would grow produce for next-door Hoffman’s Deco Deli & Café.

Officials at the UM-Flint Urban Alternative House hope to spend the next year turning a now vacant plot by the deli into a sustainable local food system in the center of Flint that offers tomatoes, spinach and other salad vegetables and herbs.

“It will help us get the freshest food possible and keep our money in Flint,” said Hoffman’s co-owner Mark Hoffman said at a press conference at the deli today.

A growing number of community garden projects have sprouted around Flint as more groups aim to reuse the thousands of vacant lots in the city while providing the community more access to locally produced and healthy food.