Malik Kenyatta Yakini’s life is deeply committed to service: education, justice, and community.

Cofounder of the local nonprofit Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Malik works to provide Detroit’s most disenfranchised residents with food security, justice, and sovereignty, as well as greater ancestral knowledge.

Prior to making expanding food access his mission, Malik spent over twenty years as principal of the Detroit-based, African American-centered K–8 school Nsoroma Institute, where he crafted a curriculum that incorporated identity, cultural education, and critical awareness.

It was only when he noticed just how many of the students he educated dealt with food insecurity that he began to wonder: who controls who gets to eat and who doesn’t?

Unwilling to let that question go answered, Yakini confounded the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) in 2006 with the intention of confronting Detroit’s food system inequities head on.

In the years since, the organization has blossomed into a model of policy advocacy, food sovereignty, and community upliftment through agriculture.

Additionally, it operates D-Town Farm, which stretches nearly seven acres in Rouge Park and produces everything from vegetables to herbs, and the Detroit Food Commons, a 31,000-square-foot food justice facility in the city’s North End, featuring community kitchens, gathering spaces, a food co-op, and more.

Malik Yakini is a trailblazer who effectively connects racial justice, community empowerment, food sovereignty, ecological restoration, and land justice.

His approach emphasizes black ownership, wealth circulation, cooperative economics, and community control of food systems.

He firmly believes that urban farming is about both food production and political reform, serving as essential work for liberation.

He does not simply grow food…he’s one of the main sowers of Detroit’s bright future – a visionary food freedom architect who is both grounded and committed to cultivating agency from the ground up.

Victoria Jackson (Editor In Chief)

Victoria Jackson is a lifelong student and sharp-eyed documentarian of all things Detroit, from its rich musical roots and cultural icons to its shifting neighborhoods, storied architecture, and underground legends. With her finger firmly on the pulse of both the city’s vibrant past and its rapidly unfolding future, she brings a deeply personal, historically grounded lens to every piece she writes.

Published on: October 1, 2025