While Uproot Market & Eatery is quite new, the organization behind its development, Sprout, has been working in local food access for over 15 years, and has plenty of amazing history to show for it! Founded in 2010, Sprout is a grassroots movement created by executive director Jeremy Andrews and a team of like-minded individuals looking to provide healthy, fresh, and local food to Battle Creek Residents, something we believe should never be in short supply!
In their first year alone, through funding provided by grants, Sprout built 12 new community gardens, and in the following year, hired and educated local youth to travel between and maintain the now 30 community gardens located in Battle Creek. In 2012, Sprout purchased a 2-acre plot of land, Sprout Urban Farms, which they tilled and began planting on, once again hiring local youth to run the operation! By 2014, Sprout had a farmers market, multiple mobile markets in operation, and began working with 6 local schools on farm-to-school programs, building a hoop house for each.
Over the years, Sprout continued to grow and change. In 2015 they began purchasing from local farmers, a tradition which continues to this day, both here and at Sprout! The farmers market shifted to a virtual marketplace, and Sprout began selling CSA boxes, which would eventually, in 2017, become the SproutBox, a monthly subscription which consistently provided Battle Creek Residents with fresh and local produce. At the same time, Sprout was launching their incubator kitchen program. All of this called for a new workspace, and thus the Springfield location Sprout resides today was leased. With this new space, Sprout was able to support more aspiring business owners in their kitchen, as well as serve more Battle Creek residents with the food they need.
First talks of a consumer owned food cooperative began in 2019, but with the rise of COVID things were initially put on hold, and the Sproutbox prioritized. Finally, in 2021, fundraising began for our then unnamed co-op! After fundraising almost 500k through memberships and grants, in 2023 the store’s name was finally decided after community crowdsourcing. Since then, we at Uproot Market and Eatery have been working hard getting ready for our grand opening, signing contracts with vendors, finalizing store layouts, and installing equipment! We are all very excited to be part of the continued initiative to keep Battle Creek healthy and well-fed.
An article written about Sprout by the WK Kellogg Foundation was published in March 2025 and gives a great history of how Sprout branched out to grow Uproot: https://everychildthrives.com/sprout-spearheads-effort-to-reshape-battle-creeks-food-system/