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Next Local Food Forum webinar highlights role of community gardens and urban farms
Graphic by Bob Benenson
Food is in Chicago's DNA. The city rose from the prairie as a center for marketing and distributing the Midwest's agriculture bounty. The nation's industrial food system was invented here in the 19th century; today, Chicago is a center for advocacy for a healthier, more sustainable, more humane and more equitable food system.
So it comes as no surprise that many leaders seeking to revitalize Chicago's underserved and underresourced communities are promoting the development, by people of color, of community gardens and urban farms.
These small growing projects are helping restore hope, jobs and opportunity to challenged communities, while helping residents who face food insecurity to feed themselves — as Chicago manifests what has become a powerful national movement under the banner of food sovereignty.
This is the topic of Local Food Forum's next "Better" Dialogues webinar, "Gardens in a City: Cultivating Hope in Chicago, which takes place on Monday, June 17 at 7 p.m. central time. The title references Chicago's official motto, Urbs in Horto, which translates from Latin as "city in a garden."
The program will focus on the work of Community Food Navigator, a Chicago non-profit launched in 2020. Its focus is on providing tools and resources to help people of color in underserved areas produce food for themselves and their communities — the core of the concept known as food sovereignty.
Our featured guest is Nick Davis, managing director of Community Food Navigator. As Nick told Local Food Forum for an article published earlier this year, “The purpose of the Community Food Navigator is really to build power amongst growers of color, build connections and relationships in our food system, and coordinate our food system a little bit better.”
He continued, “It's important that the community has a sense of how other people, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood and then the region, define that for themselves, and how we can start to organize and convene people and tighten up our relational networks so that we can actually move towards those definitions of visions of food sovereignty.”
Nick also said he wants to make it clear that Community Food Navigator is powered and informed by the community of growers, food educators, food mobilizers and organizers who have been doing incredible work for years. “We just co-design and implement strategies to address issues they raise,” he added.
Nick will be joined by other leaders in the urban growing community who are aligned with Community Food Navigator's work. We will announce the full lineup of guests soon.
Join co-hosts Bob Benenson of Local Food Forum and Chef Sarah Stegner of suburban Chicago's Prairie Grass Cafe for this free webinar. There will be Q&A, so bring your questions.
And… 6/13 Volunteer Day at Chicago Urban Farm
Speaking of Community Food Navigator… Learn more about this awesome organization up close next week, on Thursday, June 13, by volunteering to help out at Sunflower Soule Farm on Chicago’s South Side. The event will take place at the farm, 944 W. 50th Pl., between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the 13th.
This is Community Food Navigator’s third volunteer day of this growing season, and they’d love for you to join them in their goal to help keep Sunflower Soule Farm bountiful and beautiful.
Lunch will be provided and you will see immediate progress from your efforts.
What to bring:
Closed toed shoes
Work gloves
Water bottle and snacks
Please keep an eye on the weather and dress accordingly in clothing you don't mind getting dirty
Activities will include weeding, putting cardboard and coffee sacks down, spreading wood chips, getting plants in the ground, and filling grow bags with soil.
Click the button below to sign up to participate.
Wild Onion Market Previews Its Grand Opening
One week from today, Wild Onion Market in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood will join the growing community of co-op grocery stores in this region.
The occasion will be marked on June 12 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the store (7007 N. Clark St.) that starts at 12 p.m. Following its opening day, the store will be open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Here is the press release with all the details from Wild Onion Market.
This opening follows on the heels of the May 15 opening of the FOODshed co-op in the Chicago exurb of Woodstock. Read all about it in Local Food Forum.
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New full-service grocery co-op will open in Rogers Park next week!
Public invited to check out all that the new store has to offer: affordable organic staples, grab ’n’ go items, community-oriented store and more
Store to open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon on June 12
Located at 7007 N Clark St (Clark and Lunt)
All are welcome! Come make Wild Onion Market your grocery store
Shelves are being stocked, staff trained and final equipment set up in preparation for the June 12 opening of Wild Onion Market, Rogers Park’s new grocery co-op.
The full-service grocery co-op is at 7007 N Clark (Clark and Lunt) in Rogers Park.
The store is open to everyone. It will serve communities in Rogers Park, Edgewater, and West Ridge in Chicago as well as suburban areas like Evanston.
Wild Onion Market will launch its operations when doors open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon on Wednesday, June 12. From there on, the store will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
General Manager Teresa Meza says she has a fantastic staff, people with lots of different backgrounds and experiences. “We’ll be ready to start out strong with lots to offer right out of the gate.”
But we are a brand new operation,”said Meza. “We aim to get even better as we all settle into our roles, and we make adjustments and improvements along the way.”
“We know we need to earn our community’s business, which is exactly what we intend to do,” said Meza. “We’re a community owned store, and we’re eager to hear and learn from the feedback of all our patrons.”
“We encourage everyone to come by often to shop and to see how the store progresses as we learn how to meet the community’s grocery needs,” she said.
Shoppers can expect to find “all the best local offerings, affordable organic staples, and fresh produce, with great selections throughout the store from gourmet cheese to bulk grocery on regular, rotating sales,” she said.
The store will feature a wide category of grocery items with a focus on fresh produce and local products. It will also feature a bulk grocery section where shoppers can fill their own containers, as well as a selection of grab 'n' go items.
"We plan to be a valuable addition to the Rogers Park - South Evanston communities," Meza says. “We look forward to helping people fill their pantries, fridges and bellies with nourishing food for less in 2024!”
Opening day on June 12 will begin at noon.
All who come out that day will have a chance to sample the wares of several vendors who will be on hand throughout the afternoon and evening.
A brief ribbon cutting ceremony will feature remarks by a representative from Alderperson Maria Haddon’s office and from Wild Onion Market board members who were key to getting the business rolling.
Wild Onion Market will be open to all. The store at Clark and Lunt is conveniently accessible via bus, bicycle, Metra and the ”L”, as well as by car. There is parking on site.
As a food co-op, the store is run by its 2,161 owners. They have invested in the store and are committed to being sure it fulfills its mission goals:
Keep money in the neighborhood, rather than fill corporate grocery store coffers.
Contribute to creating a food supply chain that is transparent, just, and accessible to Midwest farmers and producers.
Provide fair paying job opportunities in our neighborhood.
Additional owners are always welcome. To become an owner and to learn more about Wild Onion Market, go to wildonionmarket.com or come to the store after it opens.
Farmers Market Reporter Ed Kugler at Batavia Market
Sharing some more photos from Ed Kugler, manager of Highland Park’s Ravinia Farmers Market and roving Farmers Market Reporter. These pix were taken last Saturday at the farmers market in the Chicago suburb of Batavia.
And... as Local Food Forum's one-man band, I can't be everywhere. So if you want to brag up your favorite farmers market, send photos to me at bob@localfoodforum.com.
Photo by Ed Kugler
Photo by Ed Kugler
Photo by Ed Kugler
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