Today, the group traveled an hour outside the city to volunteer at Forgotten Harvest’s farm in Fenton. All of us had a blast harvesting vegetables- especially me (Sarah) as I now found my new calling as an eggplant farmer… can’t wait to tell my parents! After harvesting the eggplants and zucchinis, we planted about an acre’s worth of cabbages while drinking all the water we could get! After our long and fun four hours of harvesting and planting we were all ecstatic to have our five-star lunch of turkey and cheese sandwiches and blue ranch doritos (the best kind of doritos btw). While eating our lunch, we got to meet Lori, the Director of Volunteers at the farm. She told us that the Forgotten Harvest trucks would pick up the vegetables we harvested today to be brought to farmer’s-market- style food pantries around the Detroit area on Saturday. It was so humbling to find out we were literally putting food on the table for people tomorrow. Hearing Lori speak about her passion and love for what she does gave us a sense of validation for all the hard work we have done this week; it was a pretty great feeling. After lunch, we hopped in our queen cars (Diva and Celeste) while talking and listening to music. One of my favorite parts of our trip has been getting to know everyone while listening to our favorite tunes and trying to decipher the impossible roads of Detroit.
When we returned to the hostel we had our economic and geographic lens presentations (run by Avery and I/Rachel and Lexi, respectively) and held our group discussion. I love hearing everyone’s different take on what we have seen and experienced in Detroit, as it shows each of us has our diverse thoughts and outlooks on the city.
Later, we went to Lafayette Coney Island restaurant to try the locally-famous chili hot dogs and fries and headed to a George Thorogood concert. The concert was held in downtown Detroit on the Riverwalk, so we were able to get a better feeling of the city. Liana and Meg later guided us through the endless escalators of the Renaissance Center; which we spent most of the night navigating how to get to the rooftop. After our hour long journey through the hotel, we found our ways back to D&C (that’s Diva and Celeste) and headed back to the hostel for our nightly hangout and dessert (Liana calls it Dessircle).