Keep Growing Detroit is directly involved by promoting agricultural education and increasing access to agricultural resources to communities of color. Detroit has been listed under the Food Access Research Atlas (FARA) as a low income and low food access region. Detroit is considered a food desert because of the lack of access to fresh produce and grocery stores, with many residents relying on fast food chains, liquor stores, and corner stores to feed themselves and their families. Grocery stores began closing in the 1980’s, and Farmer Jack was the last chain grocery store to close in 2007. Some argue that Detroit’s food desert status is no longer an issue; however, Keep Growing Detroit aims to directly address remaining issues of food insecurity. Keep Growing Detroit was founded in 2013 to organize, maintain, and support already existing food programs-the Garden Resource Program and Grown in Detroit, and to ultimately reach more urban farmers. Ashley Atkinson, the co-Director of Keep Growing Detroit, stated in an interview from 2015, “I see [the programs] growing tenfold in order to accommodate hundreds more gardens and residents participating. We really must not slow down in pursuit of our mission of a food sovereign City of Detroit.”. Keep Growing Detroit was co-founded by Ashley Atkinson in 2013. The organization is divided into subsets with their own distinct initiatives. The base of Keep Growing Detroit is located on 1850 Erskine. The Garden Resource Program is a KGD initiative that provides resources to local residents for creating and maintaining gardens, even assisting in growing plant cuttings for transplantation. The transplants are given to residents to use for their gardens. Other programs sponsored by Keep Growing Detroit include: Grown in Detroit, Produce for Pantries, Education Series, Urban Roots, Sweet on Detroit, Detroit Farm Train, Youth Programs, and Early Childhood Programs.. Grown in Detroit, which has a CSA and a food stand in the Eastern Market farmers market, aims to connect residents with locally grown produce, that is grown without the use of GmOs or pesticides. The Health Fund is one of several organizations that supplies grants to Keep Growing Detroit in support of its initiatives and actions towards community building and food sovereignty. Additional supporters are the Mahindra North American Technical Center, Wayne State University, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services. KGD receives funding as a Community Food Project (CFP). The Community Food Projects are funded federally through the U.S. Community Food Security Act of 1996. According to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) CFP’s aim to:   “Meet the food needs of low-income individuals through food distribution, community outreach to assist in participation in Federally assisted nutrition programs, or improving access to food as part of a comprehensive service; Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for the food needs of the communities; Promote comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues; and Meet specific state, local or neighborhood food and agricultural needs…”.