Chicago Lights Urban Farm helps to feed community

Chicago Lights Urban Farm produces lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, collard greens, garlic, herbs, spinach, cucumber and squash.
Chicago Lights Urban Farm produces lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, collard greens, garlic, herbs, spinach, cucumber and squash.

 Chicago Lights Urban Farm helps to feed community

BY TIA CAROL JONES
Inflation is causing the price of everything to increase significantly. Fortunately, one Urban Farm is helping to feed people in the community who are the most in need.

Chicago Lights Urban Farm, located at 444 W. Chicago Ave., is a partnership between Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights. It
started as a community garden in 2003 and became an Urban
Farm in 2010. And, while the high rises of Cabrini-Green Homes are gone, there are still people who live in the some of the rowhouses.

Chicago Lights has a longstanding history in the community, providing tutoring, a dance academy and summer day camp. The Urban Farm is used as a space for young people in the community where they could receive job training, jobs and have a place to go.

Deja Stout is the associate director of the Urban Farm. She began there as a grower and worked with the high school program. Now, Stout oversees production with the head grower and helps with community engagement and food distribution, as well as running the farm camp for young children.

Urban Farm produces lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, collard greens, kale greens, mustard greens, garlic, herbs, spinach, cucumber, squash and zucchini. Urban Farm has an on-site farmstand which is open from 1 to 5 p.m. every Friday . It opened for the season a couple of weeks ago and will continue through the end of October.

Urban Farm has a voucher program that was started in 2020. It grew out of Urban Farm trying to figure out a way to be more accessible to low-income people. Those people can come and shop the farmstand for free up to $25. Specifically for Cabrini Green residents, Urban Farm delivers produce door-to-door to them for free.

Since the farm started, programming has changed quite a bit, either because of staffing changes, or the neighborhood changing, keeping in mind what the neighborhood needs are.

“We do a lot of surveying. We also know the community fairly well. So, there are just a lot of conversations that take place among staff and community members,” Stout said.

Stout thinks what Urban Farms do for the community is very important. Whether it is creating community, creating green spaces in different ways. At Urban Farm, growing food and program are equally important. The
farm has become a staple in a community that has experience gentrification.

Urban Farm is working to put a half-court basketball court on the site. It will also be a memorial for people who played on the court.

There was a basketball court on the site previously. It was removed. Stout has been hearing from people who once played on the court what it meant to them.

For more information about Chicago Lights, visit www.chicagolights.org. For more information about Chicago Lights Urban Farm, visit www.chicagolights.org/ director-urban-farm.

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