Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series

BATTLE CREEK, MI — Devon Wilson is already a recognized leader in Battle Creek for his advocacy work and promotion of access to fresh, healthy food in the community. He runs Sunlight Gardens, an urban farmstead in the Washington Heights neighborhood, and Farmacy, a farm-to-table event space. 

His participation in a leadership program offered through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has secured a space for him as a leader on the national and world stage through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network (CLN). He was among the most recent cohort of CLN Fellows from throughout the United States to participate in an 18-month program that exposed him to new ideas and opportunities.
Wilson says he was “pretty nervous” going into the program, which had its first meeting in Battle Creek.

“I’ve been on this mission to create access to healthy food and nutrient-dense food, and why people should care,” Wilson says. “The Community Leadership Network was a great place to hone my skills and be a better leader. This was 80 epic and inspiring people who have made a difference in their community.”

The application deadline for the next cohort is August 28.

The most recent cohort was the third in the program that began in 2013 with a focus on Michigan, Mississippi, and New Mexico, which are priority states for WKKF’s work, and the city of New Orleans, says Reggie LaGrand, WKKF’s Director of Leadership Programs. The majority of fellows in the cohort represent these states, with a few coming from other states.

These areas of the country are prioritized because they are places with high concentrations of child poverty, says Kari Carlson, WKKF Communications Manager The program is managed and run by the Center for Creative Leadership, a WKKF grantee based in Greensboro, N.C.

LaGrand says the CLN is a program that supports WKKF’s mission “to partner with communities to build a more equitable world where every child and family can thrive."

"Our foundation made a commitment in 2007 to where we thought we could do the most good, and that is having a generation or more of support for these families, focused on their economic well-being, health, and education. We want to be there for a generation or more to help families and children.”

CourtesyDevon Wilson poses with Michigan-based fellows in the Community Leadership Network class three.However, WKKF’s commitment in Michigan goes back 95 years, which was when W.K. Kellogg established his Foundation to invest his money in people, beginning with children and their parents, Carlson says.

Within the “Our Priorities” area of the WKKF website is this statement: “Children can thrive when surrounded by an ecosystem of support that makes it easy to access quality education, health care, and food. Children thrive when parents thrive, so their ecosystem must also include equitable job opportunities and career pathways. Finally, the ability to face the future with confidence, assured of equitable opportunities, rounds out the ecosystem.

“Education, health, food, and workforce systems are intertwined with community efforts toward racial equity and racial healing in serving what children need to thrive. We aim to support holistic solutions across these integrated systems.”

When selecting CLN participants, LaGrand says, “We look for folks who truly relate to our priorities as a Foundation.”

Early Childhood Education, healthcare and health equity, food systems, and opportunities for parents to become employed to establish family economic security are among the sectors represented by cohort members.

“We know that children live with their families, and these families need to be supported as well. They’re the first leaders,” LaGrand says.

To better support these children and their families, CLN Fellows have their own group of people whom they can call on as resources who will hear them out and offer connections. LaGrand says this is an example of collective action where no one person is left to address challenges they face on their own.

“Many of these leaders are already doing great things in their communities. CLN brings them together,” he says.

CLN Fellows had an opportunity to travel to each of the four priority areas to hear what cohort members from those states and New Orleans see as conditions in their communities. They see what’s working and what’s not, LaGrand says.

“How things affect a Fellow in Mississippi may not be the same as how they impact a Fellow in other areas,” he says.

CourtesyReggie LeGrand with Class three Community Leadership Network fellows at the program’s final session in Detroit in March 2025.Wilson was on the committee for the Michigan tour, which included a gathering at the Detroit Historical Museum.

"We hosted different sessions on the priority areas we focus on. We also brought in members of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op to learn about what the food landscape in Detroit looks like,” Wilson says.

No one does this work alone

Since completing the 18-month program, Wilson says his latest and largest accomplishment to date has been the creation of the Food Education Agricultural Systems Training (FEAST). The 8-week training this summer was open to local students ages 15 to 25.

“Project FEAST is a workforce development program to create more practitioners around our food system and how they can make a career out of it,” Wilson says. “I was the leader and teacher for that specific program. I inject a lot of teachings and lessons into it.”

“The idea is really to give them the skills so that they’re able to do work in the food system they see as necessary. They can leave the program and go to work for a company they really admire or start their own food and manufacturing business.”

CourtesyDevon Wilson exchanges learning with Tomika Bell, local food coordinator at Choctaw Fresh Produce in Mississippi, and a member of the Community Leadership Network Class three.Hosted at Wilson’s Sunlight Gardens, among the lessons students learned was how to handle situations that they feel like they’re running into a dead on, he says. Partner organizations included Michigan State University, Kellogg Biological Station, and the Detroit People’s Food Co-op.

As a CLN Fellow, Wilson says he was given the tools to be a better leader. He says being part of a cohort of 80 brilliant minds made him more confident.

“I feel like they gave me so many powerful tools that were applicable to a variety of situations. I really like that I was able to get a toolbox for when things come up,” he says. “We’re all in a group chat together so that if anyone is going through a challenging situation or something they’ve never experienced before in their community. It’s really just a resource you can always tap back into.”

Wilson and the other members of the third CLN are now part of a network that includes more than 1,200 Fellows who were a part of different WKKF leadership programs dating back to the 1980s. Many of them now live outside of the United States and represent 44 different countries, LaGrand says.

“The Fellows do a great job of holding themselves and each other accountable,” he says.