Chicago Region Food System Fund

Bella Ru Catering distributes local farm products from Elawa Farm to individuals and families in Lake County facing food insecurity. Photo credit: Elawa Farm Foundation

Building a more resilient food system in the Chicago region

COVID-19 has created enormous stresses on our region’s food system and exposed systemic vulnerabilities. Communities of color have been the most impacted, suffering disproportionate health and economic impacts due to structural racism. The Chicago Region Food System Fund (CRFSF)launched in June 2020 with an initial investment of $4.2 million and a focus on responding to the immediate food security needs brought about by the crisis. In addition to tackling these immediate needs, the Fund seeks to create a more resilient food system that can withstand potential future shocks. Funding targets food insecurity, value chain disruptions, and infrastructure challenges. The Fund prioritizes support for organizations produced by and supplying food to communities of color.

“COVID-19 has placed severe demands on the food system and highlighted the delicate balance between supply and demand,” said Jack Westwood, senior program officer, Environmental Sustainability at the Walder Foundation. “Through these grants, we hope to build a more resilient and sustainable food system that provides for all Chicago communities, reduces its environmental impact, and helps local food businesses thrive.”

Based in Chicago’s Chinatown, the Chinese American Service League (CASL) has responded to COVID-19 by hiring their Culinary Training Program graduates to prepare culturally appropriate food for home delivery to seniors. CASL now prepares 4,500 meals/week to deliver to 300 seniors’ homes, sourcing food from local wholesalers that have been severely affected by restaurant closings.

Gary Comer Youth Center is a self-sponsored Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Service Food Program site. It currently grows produce on its nearly 2-acre urban farm providing weekly donations of fresh, organic food to local food pantries and community partners. The Center collaborates with local restaurants and businesses of the 75th and 79th Street corridors to provide half-price produce and general support for business operations.

Elawa Farm is partnering with Bella Ru Catering to distribute locally sourced grocery bags to predominantly Latinx communities across Lake County, including Waukegan, North Chicago, and Round Lake.

Green City Market was the first farmers market in Chicago to work with its vendors to launch a virtual marketplace in response to COVID-19. They partnered with WhatsGood to launch an ecommerce app platform that provides a central ordering platform and streamlines the aggregation and delivery process and expenses.

Hope Charities, Inc, in addition to its own food pantry located in Olympia Fields, supplies emergency food to ten local food pantries in the Chicago metro area and has increased its services in response to COVID-19.

The Edward G. Irvin Foundation/Woodlawn Community Produce Pantry will provide free COVID-19 testing and face masks during their produce distribution events through 2021.

The Street Vendors Association of Chicago (SVAC) established a cooperative kitchen vendors could use to produce their food with higher food safety standards than they could meet at home. Vendors have been producing food and giving it out freely in the community. SVAC has been paying the cost of ingredients.

SkyART is shifting its Family Table program into delivering fresh food, produce, and recipes to their young studio programs participants and their families, while offering them local chef-led cooking tutorials to participate at home in the next three to six months.

Windy City Harvest assists incubator farmers in setting up small farm businesses to grow produce at Legends Farm in Bronzeville. Photo courtesy of Chicago Horticultural Society.

This year, despite the challenges of COVID-19 and the social distancing requirements of the state, The GardenWorks Project gathered a small team of volunteers to help install and prepare for a community garden in Naperville. All proceeds of the garden produce, which will be planted this fall with funds from The Chicago Region Food System Fund, will help support families facing food insecurity with additional fresh produce available at their distribution sites. Photo courtesy of The GardenWorks Project.

With volunteer support as well as assistance from the MAAFA Redemption Project of New Mt. Pilgrim Church, garden leaders Sam and Angela Taylor updated the 10-year-old raised beds at the Fulton Street Flower and Vegetable Garden. Photo courtesy of Garfield Park Community Council.

Plant Chicago’s farmers market is not only working toward food accessibility through their Link Match and Link Produce Box programs, but the non profit also works closely with local vendors like Cedillo’s Fresh Produce (@cedillofreshproduce) to ensure that money spent at their market goes back to cultivating a more sustainable food system with their community. Photo courtesy of Plant Chicago.

Photo courtesy of Puerto Rican Cultural Center

Elawa Farm partners with Bella Ru Catering to distribute locally-sourced grocery bags to predominantly Latinx communities across Lake County, including Waukegan, North Chicago, and Round Lake.

The Fund began as an immediate response to support communities in Chicago and food producers, processors, and distributors in the region. As of late August 2020, the Fund grew to $6.7 million and awarded 81 grants totaling $3.4 million. In the fall of 2020, the Fund shifted its focus to long-term work toward a resilient, racially and economically just local food system. 

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Update April 2023:

The Chicago Region Food System Fund announced plans for an approved $10 million of funding to be distributed in three rounds of grantmaking through April 2024. A round of funding focused on evolving the food system will open for applications in June 2023. It will be followed in September 2023 by a round focused on growing food system resources and in January 2024 by a round focused on better preparing for food system emergencies. Read the press release.

Update July 2022:

As part of its continued efforts to bolster Chicago’s local food system against systemic shocks such as COVID-19 and ongoing economic upheaval, the Chicago Region Food System Fund has awarded an additional $1.52 million to 48 grantees. This round of grants prioritizes projects that cultivate existing community assets to aid in long-term food system transformation. Funding in this round focuses on building on the resources and capacity of individual organizations, and strengthening partnerships between organizations and institutions across size, geography, and type that implement community-led food initiatives. The Fund has awarded a total of $11,438,150 to 156 nonprofit organizations.

Update November 2021:

The Chicago Region Food System Fund announced an additional round of funding, awarding $1.5 million to 6 organizations engaged in food system-related response to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Grant recipients will collaborate with non-profits, community organizations, faith communities, farmers and growers, food pantries, and other frontline organizations to enhance resilience, innovation, and transformation in the system. The Fund has awarded $8,417,150 to 105 grantees since June 2020.

Learn more about the Fund: ChicagoRegionFoodFund.org.

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