We took four vacant lots and turned them into working market gardens. Sprout grows produce for the blocks around us, pays first-time growers to learn the trade, and keeps a farm stand open where fresh food has always been hardest to buy.
Farm stand open Wednesday to Sunday, May–October · Battle Creek, MI
Beds are no-till, watered by drip lines fed from rain barrels, and fed with compost we make on site from the farm stand's own trimmings. Everything harvested here is sold within two miles of where it grew.
Year-round production on formerly vacant parcels — salad, brassicas, roots, and storage crops, rotated with cover crop every fourth bed.
A paid 14-week apprenticeship: seed to sale. Crews run a bed of their own, learn harvest math and food safety, and leave with a reference and a paid placement.
Thursday cook-and-share nights: whatever the farm can't sell becomes a hot meal, a preserved jar, or a bag of produce for the pantry two blocks over.
Our Form 990 is filed every year and is public. The three figures below are straight from the fiscal-year-2023 return — no programme hidden inside "admin", no reserve we don't name.
Every dollar shows up on a public return the following year — wages, seed, and the insurance that lets a neighbour walk in and take a bag of greens for nothing. We would rather be read than trusted on faith.
Pay what the sign says, pay what you can, or use the community tab — there is no means test and no conversation required.
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 4:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Thursday | 4:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Friday | 4:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Saturday | 9:00 am – 1:00 pm |
| Sunday | 10:00 am – 12:00 pm |
Winter (Dec–Apr) is pre-order pickup only, Fridays 3–6 pm. Order by Wednesday noon.
Work days are drop-in. Bring closed shoes and a water bottle; we have gloves, tools, and coffee. Groups of six or more, write ahead and we'll build you a task.
8 am – 12 pm, April through October. Weeding, transplanting, harvest packing, and the compost turn. Stay for one hour or all four.
Tell us you're coming$25 a month covers a full share for a household that can't pay — seed, water, and the labour to grow it. Cancel any time, no phone call needed.
Set up a giftGot a vacant lot, a church yard, or a school field? We assess, test soil, and take on a five-year growing lease at no cost to the owner.
land@sprouturbanfarms.orgMessages go to the grower on duty. Expect a reply within two working days — usually the same afternoon.
Staff & volunteer email
Board members, growers, and the volunteer coordinators all run on our own mail server. If you have an @sprouturbanfarms.org address, sign in here.
https://mail.sprouturbanfarms.orgEvery dollar stays on the lots: seed, water, stipends, and the insurance that lets a stranger walk in and pick up a bag of greens for free.