Small Batch is pausing production Dec 13!
For over a decade, Small Batch Detroit has been dedicated to producing high-quality gourmet treats and providing meaningful employment and professional development to Detroit's future leaders. Your support has been instrumental in our mission, and has helped us empower and prepare young people for successful careers and personal growth.
After careful consideration, we have made the decision to pause our operations until Summer 2025. This temporary hiatus will allow us to: strategize, rebrand, redevelop recipes, and strengthen youth power and voice in our programming!
We want to express our deepest gratitude for your continued support of Small Batch Detroit and the Detroit Food Academy. Your partnership has been crucial in creating meaningful opportunities for our city's youth. While we will miss serving you during this period, we are excited about the improvements and innovations this time will bring. We look forward to returning in Summer 2025 with renewed energy, enhanced programs, and delicious products that continue to support our mission.
Thank you for being an essential part of our journey to empower Detroit's youth.
Small Batch Detroit is an employment and training program for alumni of DFA’s afterschool programming. Through career exposure, paid work experiences, and development opportunities, our alumni are confident, connected, and prepared for their next personal and professional steps.
Workforce Development
Small Batch Detroit offers career development, training, certifications, employment, business incubation, and mentorship to youth preparing for a career in food. Young adults are employed at our three in-house brands: Slow Jams jam, Mitten Bites granola bars, and Detroit Pop Shop. Small Batch is the final workforce development arm of DFA’s learning pathway. We proudly provide hands-on, competitively paid work experiences in production, sales and new product development.
Small Batch critically reflects on what good (meaning equitable, fulfilling, supportive, and sustainable) work can look like in Detroit’s food system.
Small Batch is a safe, non-punitive space to make mistakes and learn first-job skills. Supervisors and youth alike are proactive in naming what success in the workplace looks like. Youth employees receive regular mentorship and individual check-ins with caring adults to set goals and achieve them.
Through amplifying youth voice, our programs offer real world situations for students to be creative and prototype their products in real markets for real audiences. In a supportive environment, our young people gain the confidence needed to embark on their own business ventures and practice the lifelong skills of leadership, creativity, confidence, and entrepreneurship.