Growing Home

Growing Home is thrilled to announce that we will be the recipient of fundraising during the 2012 Chiditarod!

The organizers of Chiditarod describe it as “a mobile food drive that combines elements of Alaska’s Iditarod with a costumed race and Chicago’s own unique brand of social activism.” On March 3, 5-person teams of racers will don hilarious costumes while pushing shopping carts filled with canned food through the streets of Chicago.

The Chiditarod draws together over 800 people as participants and spectators, and has raised over 46,000 pounds of food and over $21,000 in direct donations since its inception in 2006. The food items will be donated this year to The Greater Chicago Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution and training center that supplies 69 million pounds of nonperishable food, fresh produce, dairy products and meat to 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters for feeding more than 678,000 adults and children in Cook County each year.

Many teams will also conduct a fundraising drive as part of their race, and the recipient for 2012 will be Growing Home. Thanks to our current matching drive, donations will go twice as far!

We are excited to be a part of The Chiditarod! Register before February 18 to participate in this fun, worthy event! Then sign up here to set up a fundraising page for your team, to benefit Growing Home.

We hope you had a wonderful 2011! Growing Home sure did! Here are some of our favorite moments from the year.

(slides will advance automatically, or you can click on a photo to go to the next)

Thank you for your encouragement and support! We look forward to 2012!

Growing Home is the lucky nonprofit that receives 10¢ for every bag that is reused while shopping at Chicago area Whole Foods Markets until December 31st.

Our job training program for formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals stands to make up to $20,000 through this campaign. We will use this money to pay our program participants wages, create opportunities for healthy fun with our neighbors in Englewood, and purchase seeds and other farm supplies for the 2012 growing season.

Thank you Whole Foods! And thank you to everyone who recycles, reuses, and brings their own bag when they shop at Whole Foods!

Growing Home is proud to have been named one of Chicago’s Top Charities, by CBS Chicago as part of their “Best of Chicago” series.

Thank you CBS Chicago!

Several recent Urban Agriculture awareness projects feature Growing Home.

In June of 2011, photographer, Emily Schiffer, began a project on food security and urban agriculture on Chicago’s Southside. Her captivating photographs and project are on Time Magazine’s photo essay section this week.

An intern at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2011, by Emily Schiffer.

In the summer of 2010, David Hanson, Edwin Marty, and Michael Hanson traveled across the U.S. in a vegetable-grease powered bus documenting successful urban farms. Their book, Breaking Through Concrete, goes on sale this coming January.

An image of a hoophouse interior at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2010, Breaking Through Concrete.

Additionally, Carrot City, a recently published book showing that design can enable the production of food in cities, includes a section on Growing Home. It grew out of the exhibit “Carrot City,” which emerged from work done at Ryerson University in Toronto in 2009.

The interior of a hoophouse. Copyright, 2009, Carrot City.

In 2011, Cordia Pugh approached Growing Home about creating a new community garden in Englewood. In a recent Youtube slideshow Glenda Daniel of Openlands speaks about Cordia’s courageous effort and the successful first year of this garden.

Englewood Community Gardens, 2011.

Growing Home is seeking a enthusiastic and detail-oriented individual, who is committed to our work as a social enterprise nonprofit, to join our team. We are hiring an Administrative Assistant to work in our administrative office with a start date of January 4th, 2012. The position will be open until filled.

Growing Home, Inc. is a Chicago-based nonprofit with a mission to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle of job training, employment, and community development. The administrative office at Clark Street is responsible for the fundraising and management of the Employment Training, Urban Farming, Rural Farming, Outreach, and Special Projects departments.

To see the full posting and learn how to apply please download the full job description.

We’ve got our 2012 CSA Program underway and you can register now to receive heaps of local organic produce in 2012. Or register a friend and give the gift of freshly picked organic vegetables all year. Early bird pricing is available through January 31st, 2012.

The whole Growing Home team has been working hard to make our CSA program better than ever this coming year. We hope you’ll like the changes as much as we do. If at any time you have questions about these changes or about anything else feel free to shoot us an email.

• We’ve added an “Individual Size” share. This size is well suited for households with around 1-3 people, or people who want to suppliment their CSA share by shopping at the farmers market. Our “Full Size” share is a 5/9ths bushel box packed full of organic produce, and tends to last a family of 4 who eat a medium or “normal” amount of veggies for a week. The new “Individual Size” share comes in a Growing Home tote bag and is about 2/3rds the size of our full share.
• Along with our usual Chicago area sites in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Evanston, Edgewater, and Logan Square, we’ve added a pickup location in Bucktown. (Along with these Chicago area sites you can pickup in Joliet or Marseilles.
• We’ve also extended the both spring and fall seasons by a week.

To find out more read our CSA Membership page.

Wood Street Urban Farm Environmental Remediation
Notice of Comment Period, Public Meeting &
Revolving Loan Fund Administrative Record Repository

Growing Home Inc. is in the process of applying for a grant from the IEPA Brownsfields Revolving Loan Fund to help fund environmental remediation activities associated with the clean-up of a portion of the parcel of land at 5814 South Wood Street, to comply with environmental regulations.

An information repository is available for review at the Growing Home Office from December 6, 2011 – January 5, 2012:
2732 N. Clark Street, Suite 310
Chicago, IL 60614

A public meeting to discuss and solicit comments to the repository documents will be held on Friday, December 16, 2011 from 1 pm – 2 pm at the Wood Street Urban Farm, 5814 South Wood Street, Chicago, IL 60636.

For more information, please contact:
Katy Collier
Growing Home
773-434-7144
info@growinghomeinc.org

This former industrial site is undergoing major redevelopment, including several urban ag projects. There are three greenhouses on the site.

I was invited to Toronto to participate in “GrowTo: Urban Agriculture Speaker Series” at Ryerson University. This series was a collaboration of a number of NGO’s and the Toronto Food Policy Council. It looked at the “What, How, Where and Why of Urban Agriculture,” with our panel focusing on the “why.”

Nevin Cohen from the New School in New York joined me on the panel, along with two local people who are working on urban ag projects in Toronto. There were about 100 people in the audience. The discussion went on for over two hours, before the moderator cut it off.

My host, Joe Nasr, with Nevin Cohen from the New School, outside Ryerson University.

I spent two days visiting with urban ag and food activists in Toronto, and visiting some important projects. I was impressed with all of the activity, and with the enthusiasm of those involved. It was a great visit and I look forward to returning when the weather is warmer and more food is growing.

-Harry Rhodes
Executive Director

Evergreen Brick Works is a large industrial site where they used to make bricks. It had been abandoned for many years until it was turned into an ecology center, with a focus on educational programs for youth, centered on food and the built environment. They have refurbished many of the old buildings, and created some new structures, such as this one made from cob.

Artscape Wychwood Barns is an old city bus garage that has been turned into a community food center with a greenhouse, community kitchen, and a farmers market; and an arts center with studios and a theater.

Kick off the holiday season with a Thanksgiving volunteer day at our Wood Street Urban Farm.

This Tuesday, Green City Market‘s Junior Board is teaming up with Growing Home to prep the Wood Street Urban Farm in Englewood for winter.

Join in the fun and help our farmers and the Junior Board in cleaning up and putting our farm to rest. Stick around after the work is done to celebrate potluck style.

Crop Mob
the Wood Street Urban Farm
5814 S. Wood Street
773-434-7144
Tuesday, Nov. 22nd: 10 am – 1 pm

For details please email juniorboard[at]chicagogreecitymarket[dot]org.