Urban Growers Collective

Live on the the south chicago area and looking for a community garden? Grow with Urban Growers Collective this year at Jackson Park or our South Chicago farm! For just $25, you can care for your garden plot for the entire growing season, while connecting with knowledgeable gardeners from your community. **Fee waivers available to remove economic barriers from individual donors! Thanks to the power of community and generosity. ???????? link to sign up on our website: https://lnkd.in/g5X3HWyU

Growing season and community building is underway. It's Fun-Fun Fungi time on the farm. UGC's youth corp at South Chicago and our downtown programs learned about growing mushrooms hands on. We educate through practical education on and part of our working farms. Leading to well rounded humanity oriented and culturally literate adults #mycology #communityfood #youthfarmers @afterschoolmatters

This program is good for the state and nation. It supports the health of the community, stabilizes and encourages local food production and self reliance. This program is very effective and actually fiscally conservative when the true cost of not securing public health and nutrition of all of our communities is understood. The positive impacts and visibility of farmers and the importance of agriculture as a whole, is felt and seen by everyday people needing good food to eat, and should be seen as a top priority by our government. Illinois Department of Agriculture

??Coming soon! ???? Sign up for a box of our seasonal produce harvested and delivered to your door the next day or pick up at one of our farm sites. Please consider supporting our work and our local food shed by committing to purchasing our produce. Collective Supported Agriculture helps us all by increasing consumption of seasonal food we grow as a 501c3 and local farms we collaborate with to bring fruits and special items to your homes or offices. Swipe to see what’s in season. Registration opens soon! Stay tuned for updates ???????? #localfood #urbanfarm #climatechangefoodsystem #buylocal #csa

UGC welcomed the brilliant students of Simeon Career Academy to both Green Era Chicago Campus and the South Chicago Farm. We love sharing the #STEAM career pathways in agriculture tech and community food systems innovating here on our southside of Chicago. We love when our purpose and vision hits the mark! ?????? And our Next generation leaders see the possibilities in their futures. #SimeonCareerAcademy Chicago Public Schools

“We just want the next generation, really all generations, to get re-engaged in agriculture.” - Erika Allen Thanks to Jill Dutton and The Packer for a great article featuring UGC and so many efforts around the country!! It's a great read! https://lnkd.in/eeDpC9Yh #Blackfarmers #Agriculture #BlackWomenFarmers #Farminglineage

UGC is getting ready for the season. From strategic planning, seedling and crop planning, program transformations and deeper accountability to our organization's growth and sustainability, we are ready, maturing and look forward to building partnerships from community movers and shakers to funders/donors. Farms Director Malcolm Evans shares a bit about the early Alliums seedlings and grounds ready to begin expansion growing for our CSA, Culinary partnerships and procurement/institutional purchasing participation. Because of Green Era Chicago Campus we have the fertility to grow more food and support the many urban and rural community food growers and farmers who are aligned with not only producing nutritionally dense and delicious food for our region but also mitigating climate change via local fertility! Times may be uncertain but we all can grow or purchase locally 10% of our own food. Let's do this! #10%foodchallenge Green Era Chicago Campus

?? Do you ever wonder what happens during UGC’s Winter Work? Today, UGC staff met at the 30-acre Z Farm in Chicago Heights to kick off our Strategic Planning. Being together on one site grounds the organization in the work each of us does to grow food and steward the land. We reflected on successes and lessons learned since our November 2022 planning (??last 3 pictures) to remind ourselves of how what we do supports innovation across seasons, informs our collective to support their projects, and influences our field to accelerate research, policy and practice We’re grateful and inspired to continue this work together and can’t wait to welcome everyone at our farms this season ?? The Conservation Fund Community Food Navigator EFOD Collaborative Chicago Food Policy Action Council

“I have the audacity to believe,” he exclaimed, “that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education, and culture for their minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Ph.D.

It’s a winter wonderland at the South Chicago Farm ?? Even the veggies have to bundle up under covers in order stay protected and fresh after getting vital sunshine inside our outdoor hoop houses. Stay warm out there! #coldfarming #wintergreens