All Roads Lead Home

Happy Winter Solstice! 

I returned home yesterday in time to watch the sun set just south of Camels Hump and Mount Mansfield on the western horizon – oh, it feels good to be home even though I have loved traveling. I’ll miss the adventure of visiting organizations, friends and family. I’ll miss the opportunity to learn by observing and questioning. Now it’s time for reflection and processing as I digest all that I have seen in the past thirty days and think about incorporating this newly acquired information and knowledge into Salvation Farms’ development.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with our board members and discussing our strategy for the coming year. Future posts will keep you informed of our work.

Below are three of the last visits from my cross-country research trip. I will post my remaining four visits before the New Year.

Monday 12^th

Windy City Harvest - Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago IL

The Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) has operated a youth urban gardening program since 2003.  In 2007, after being approached by a funder who wanted to see a similar program working directly with ex-convicts, the Windy City Harvest (WCH) program was established.  I was shocked to find out that 60% of all adult males from the Chicago neighborhood just north of the WCH headquarters have been convicted of a crime and served jail time.

WCH has four program components, all open to individuals who have been convicted of a crime; a certification program, transitional jobs, a county jail “boot camp” garden program and the corporate campus gardens.  I had the pleasure to meet Darius in both Oakland at the CFSC conference and WCH gardens.  He has been working with WCH for almost two years and is hoping for a position of employment when the next year’s budget is approved.  Darius feels the work he does with WCH has provided him a new start and a healthy option for employment that he would not have had otherwise.  I really enjoyed the tour he provided me as well as his willingness to share his personal story and perspective.

After learning about the garden and work that Darius is responsible for which consists of marketing WCH produce through farmers markets, wholesale, retail, and restaurant accounts, we walked into the greenhouse where he continued to share details about the production occurring there and his plans for seed starting in the spring.  He has helped developed new processes for a more organized production system for seedling that are provided to urban garden sites throughout the city.  I was excited to see that WCH headquarters, also referred to as “the ranch”, houses an

aquaponics system that mainly grows basil, supported by the nutrient rich water from a small tank housing 300-400 tilapia (fish).

This visit was so inspiring.  Both Darius and Angie, the program’s director, are very committed to the work of WCH.  What a pleasure it was to meet them both in Oakland and to visit their work site in Chicago.

gain a thorough understanding of the scale and scope of the emergency food industry across the nation. The GCFD is a very modern, newly built facility. It is spacious and appears to be quite efficient. It is a massive facility covering 11 acres. Like other food banks, they house a community kitchen program and mobile pantries. What I found to be most interesting and unique was the Healthy Kids Market program  (see bottom of the web-page). This program consists of food shelves/pantries located within area schools for easy food access by both youth and parents.

Tuesday 13^th

Fresh Moves, Chicago IL

This is such a wonderful initiative and I am so pleased that I was able to get on the bus while in its operating region. I met up with the Fresh Moves (FM) bus at Saint Anthony Hospital as I was headed out of Chicago. I had initially contacted the founding director of FM while doing contract work with Why Hunger.

They began their operation in May 2011 and I wanted to see them in action. What they have accomplished in such a short time-frame is very impressive. The bus successfully serves areas of Chicago that are not served by fresh food markets or grocery stores; so successful that it has increased its operating days from two to four days per week with more than a dozen stops.

I was unable to see the loading of the bus but was happy to spend a little time speaking with Dara, the senior project manager and one of the buses operators.  The bus is welcoming, clean, organized and well stocked with fruits, veggies, beans, nuts and other fresh or dry whole foods.  These products are conventionally and organically produced, with some locally produced.  It was great to find out that one of FM produce suppliers is Windy City Harvest (see above).  Products on the bus were very reasonably priced; I bought two locally grown apples for just a dollar and I witnessed a gentleman purchase a 26 cent pear.  The bus is equipped with a digital scale and computerized register.  Cash, credit and EBT cards (SNAP/food stamp benefits) are all welcomed forms of payment.  Even coupons provided to youngsters in area schools as good behavior incentives/rewards are redeemed on the bus.  It was awesome to learn that the largest customer base accessing food from the bus are youth.