On Saturday, February 22, members of DePaul UFO traveled to Growing Power Chicago's Iron Street Farm. Started in 1993, Growing Power has evolved from an "organization with teens who needed a place to work" to a "national and global commitment to sustainable food systems." (Read a NYTimes Magazine article on founder, Will Allen HERE)
Growing Power's Chicago Projects Office opened in 2002 and Iron Street Farm is one of six Urban Farms sites in the city.
Some fun guys and gals (group of DePaul UFO members)
And some fungi (mushrooms growing at Iron Street Farm)
Want to learn more about Growing Power Chicago? Next weekend (March 13-15), they will be participating in Good Food Festival and Conference at UIC Forum! If you are interested in volunteering at the festival, CLICK HERE.
SPEAKING OF LEARNING MORE..
Last week, Will's daughter, Erika Allen was interviewed as a part of Inspiring Grateful's Food Growing Summit, an online tele-summit hosted by Gary Heine and Valerie Kausen. Check out just a few of her many inspiring words below.
So for me it's not like feel good spiritually or whatever but it's really about
economic development; that is food justice to me. And I think it's a change,
like a series of interns, young people that come through “What's this food
justice?” and I put my hands up and say, “It's about growing food, employing
people well above minimum wage from communities that are most impacted
by food insecurity, poverty and crime. So that’s food justice.”
It's not about sitting around the fire and talking about the creation of the universe, that's not food justice. That's awesome, but that's not what the work is for me. The work is really about changing the dynamic of how people survive and people having control over what goes into their bodies. They have control over where they live, they have control over their environment and when you have poverty and all these pieces coming together, you don't have those things.
It's not about sitting around the fire and talking about the creation of the universe, that's not food justice. That's awesome, but that's not what the work is for me. The work is really about changing the dynamic of how people survive and people having control over what goes into their bodies. They have control over where they live, they have control over their environment and when you have poverty and all these pieces coming together, you don't have those things.
So the food becomes a tool for justice.
