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Learn how projects are improving lives in under-resourced communities
The recording of Local Food Forum's "Better" Dialogues webinar, "Gardens in a City: Cultivating Hope in Chicago," is posted above. Co-host Chef Sarah Stegner and I urge you to watch the inspiring, informative and engaging conversation that took place on Monday, June 17.
The title references Chicago's official motto, Urbs in Horto, which translates from Latin as "city in a garden." Food is, in fact, 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 under-resourced 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.
The webinar focused on the work of Community Food Navigator, a Chicago non-profit launched in 2020. This organization provides tools and resources to help people of color in underserved areas produce food for themselves and their communities.
Nick Davis, managing director of Community Food Navigator, was our featured guest. 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.”
Nick was joined by Natasha Nicholes, a dynamic change-maker as founder and executive director of the We Sow. We Grow. urban farm in the West Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
All of our webinars are part of a broader conversation about key issues affecting our efforts to build a better food system. Please share your thoughts.
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