gardening for our people

Sep 6

They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.
Quisieron enterrarnos sin saber que éramos semillas.
A Mexican Dicho

In this episode of Radicals for Good, we're talking about the true impacts of urban gardening as a means of feeding our people and building community with Dolores Perales-Lara, an urban planner and co-director of Cadillac Urban Gardens.

We prefer you didn’t but if you must, listen on:

DONATE TO CADILLAC URBAN GARDENS

Who’s in this episode?

DOLORES PERALES-LARA

Co-director of Cadillac Urban Gardens

Dolores Perales-Lara is a Detroit-based urban food systems leader advancing community-rooted approaches to land access, youth leadership, and neighborhood resilience. Rooted in Southwest Detroit, her work centers community-based organizations as drivers of equitable development and long-term food sovereignty. She bridges grassroots organizing and food systems planning, using urban agriculture as a platform for youth-driven STEM education, participatory research, and leadership development to cultivate the next generation of planners, growers, and community leaders. Through this work, Dolores aims to support models that position young people and residents not as beneficiaries, but as co-developers of the policies, practices, and spaces that shape their communities. She is the co-director of Cadillac Urban Gardens.

Shayla Zimmerman

*Founder, Host, & Producer of Radicals for Good*
Shayla is a Detroit-based community organizer, storyteller, and activist whose work centers community power, collective care, and everyday acts of resistance. She currently leads for good co., a consulting firm for values-aligned organizations. She started community organizing at 15 years old, since then she’s led local and national climate resilience and water justice initiatives and built grassroots emergency response efforts on Detroit’s East Side. Previously, she was producer and co-host of Michigan-focused conversations on United Way’s Virtual Town Halls.

Learn More and Take ActioN

Learn more, volunteer, pick up free produce, and/or donate to Cadillac Urban Gardens: https://www.cadillacurbangardens.org/home
Donate to Cadillac Urban Garden and support free food: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/AXTKTP42KWZSE
Read youth led research on food insecurity: https://www.learngala.com/cases/detroitfood/
Learn more about food systems and food insecurity in Detroit: https://detroitfoodpc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/DFMR24-Report-20260416-FINAL.pdf