Detroit Youth Food Brigade offers fresh products with interns' help

By Megha Satyanarayana Detroit Free Press DETROIT (AP) -- Rather than spend her summer chilling out with friends, 17-year-old Detroit high schooler Nina Wilson has a better idea. As one of 20 teenagers in the Detroit Youth Food Brigade, she'll learn the ins and outs of running a small food business while selling food products at local farmers markets. She starts this week for Harmonie Gardens Café and already has her sales pitch down pat. "I just keep a smile on and keep my energy flowing. You just gotta keep it going," she said. Detroit Youth Food Brigade started last year, a project by four young Detroiters interested in the intersection of local food, social justice and education. By pairing students interested in food with food makers interested in teaching, the founders hope to answer a fundamental question about food security and social activism. "Can you empower youth to solve food issues in their own community?" asked DYFB co-founder Noam Kimelman. Students, who come from high schools in the Cody/Rouge and southwest Detroit neighborhoods and Highland Park, will spend one day per week with their mentors learning about everything from how to source ingredients to how to price and market the finished product. The other days, they'll be at various farmers markets in Detroit, selling the products their mentors make. First-time mentors Shannon Byrne of Slow Jams and Phil Jones of Colors-Detroit café said the summer interns, who will be paid, not only get to see what goes into Detroit's food system, but get experience in business and customer service. They get to be responsible for taking a local brand into Detroit's various neighborhoods. "This is a remarkable opportunity for young people to get out there and get some skills and get out there and find themselves," said Jones. For Cesar Chavez High School student Michael Sepulveda, 17, who is one of Jones' interns, and Kenneth Redden, 17, a repeat intern from Highland Park High School headed for Fresh Corner Café, the experience is as much about getting out of the house this summer as it is about building careers. "Learning about business would help with my future," said Redden. "It's the experience of learning how a job is supposed to go, and to get along with everybody." Published: Tue, Jul 24, 2012