We’re now in the eighth month of the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions are struggling to maintain their incomes and housing. But even before the pandemic started, one Chicago nonprofit, the Urban Growers Collective, was working to address residents’ struggles to access another basic necessity—fresh, healthy food—and the current crisis has only emboldened that work.
“It’s really an issue of apartheid and where we value putting a diverse kind of selection of options,” Allen says. “You think of having a multitude of big chain grocery stores, having a vibrant farmers market, having a variety of sit-down restaurants that have all types of cuisines. A vibrant food culture, it usually reflects into a vibrant economy and all these other pieces.”
According to the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, Black and Hispanic youth are exposed to a significantly higher volume of food advertisements than their white counterparts, and are also disproportionately targeted with food companies’ least nutritious products, like sugary drinks, fast food, and candy, in turn contributing to health disparities in these communities.
The CSA boxes, which are either picked up or delivered on Saturdays, contain roughly a dozen seasonal vegetables from UGC farms, along with microgreens, fruit, and additional vegetables from community partners and farmers with UGC’s incubator, Farmers for Chicago.Credit: Adam M. Rhodes
Addressing food insecurity in Chicago was a top campaign priority for former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011, when his administration set their sights on so-called food deserts, places without nearby access to a grocery store. But as Allen pointed out, using that metric can paint an unclear picture about the true scope of food security in a community.
But as with what feels like truly everything in the world right now, UGC’s hunger relief work amid the pandemic didn’t come without challenges.
