Austin Grown is a partnership between BUILD Chicago, One Earth Collective, and After School Matters. Austin Grown teaches an annual summer youth cohort to plant and maintain an urban farm while also educating about healthy food systems, food justice, restorative environmental justice, green entrepreneurship and community-building. All youth earn a stipend while they work and while they learn. The urban farm even houses a flock of 9 chickens and uses solar panels to generate electricity! The youth took part in virtual speaker sessions, chef demos, healthy food tastings, and an eye-opening field trip to Chicago Eco House this summer.
'Austin Grown' Plows Ahead Despite Pandemic
Following up on last year’s successful Austin Grown summer youth leadership program—but adding in a pandemic—proved . . . challenging. Last year, youth worked at BUILD Chicago’s Iris Farm and Peace Garden. They had their hands in the dirt. But during the first week of June, and with the program scheduled to begin on July 6, the word came in that all youth programs through After School Matters and One Summer Chicago (of which Austin Grown is a part) had to be 100% virtual.
GCC is BUILDing a Brighter Future for At-Risk Kids in Chicago
This summer, GCC’s “I Can Fly” mentoring and garden education program is returning, bigger and better than before in the Austin neighborhood. The program has a new name and new energy, thanks to new funding and a stronger partnership with Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development (BUILD), an organization that has been serving at-risk youth in Chicago’s most challenging neighborhoods for 50 years. Their mission is “...to engage at risk youth in schools and on the streets to help them realize their potential and contribute to our communities.”
The Climate Food Fight: Victory Gardens for a Warming World
Can we fight climate change with a tomato? We’ve fought with food once before. . . and we’re not talking about in the cafeteria.
Today, a new round of Climate Victory Gardens are popping up across the country to address our climate crisis, according to Jillian Semaan, food campaigns director at Green America, a national nonprofit that is leading the charge.
A Crash Course in Garden History
Landscape Historian Barbara Geiger, will teach "A Crash Course in Garden History" from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at Dole Library, 225 Augusta in Oak Park.
In this lecture full of images Barbara will hit high points in the story of gardening through the ages. How the constraints of water, gravity, soil, and climate shaped design. How major design styles leapt national boundaries to take root in new environments.
Youth Learn Leadership via Gardening
This summer a new youth leadership program gave a cohort of Chicago teens a safe and nurturing environment to learn lessons that enriched their lives, as well as the neighborhood where they live. During July, teens in the “I Can Fly” Youth Leadership Program focused on the richness of the soil, not the economic poverty around them; the sweet fruits of labor, not the bitterness of systemic discrimination.
Free Sustainable Food Class for High School Students
A free sustainable food class for high school students will run throughout the summer from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays from June 8 to July 27, at Triton College in River Grove. Faculty and community gardeners from Triton's Horticulture/Sustainable Agriculture department will teach the class by utilizing a new greenhouse and garden on the east side of 5th Avenue.