$115,000 to help feed people in northern Illinois!

Glenwood Sunday Market

The market’s mission is to make sustainable, regionally grown and produced foods accessible to its whole community. Thanks to CHIditarod grants since 2022, the organization provides matching grants toward purchase of all Link/SNAP approved foods, and this year’s grant will continue the matching program to increase food accessibility for food insecure people as well as sustaining the local food shed.

Green City Market

At Green City Market, when SNAP users spend $25 of SNAP benefits, GCM (and CHIditarod) provides an additional $50, tripling the purchasing power of Chicagoans facing food insecurity. One in seven households in Cook County grapples with food insecurity, and government nutrition assistance is the lowest it has been in three years.

Just Roots

In partnership with local health providers, Just Roots’ Fresh Food Farmacy program addresses the connection between access to fresh, organic food and diet-related health outcomes. They will use CHIditarod funds to teach families to develop a deeper understanding of the connection between diet, nutrition, and health outcomes and will provide culturally affirming food paired with a suite of hands-on educational programs.

Nourishing Hope

One of Chicago’s largest and longest-operating food pantries, Nourishing Hope provides food access, case management, and mental health counseling free of charge to all residents in the City of Chicago. They will use the infrastructure funds to purchase a floor scrubber to keep clients, staff, and volunteers safe in their warehouse and pantry.

The Outreach House

The Dignity Diner provides weekly meal services, and in 2022 began a community garden to provide fresh produce to guests. Dignity Diner plans to use its CHIditarod grant to further invest in their kitchen prep space to continue best serving their clients. They plan to purchase a new refrigerator/freezer, counter-height islands for work space and storage, and new cabinetry.

The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance

The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance has many seasoned community gardeners whose years of experience could benefit aspiring gardeners, and in 2023 began piloting a new Train the Trainer program to help local gardeners deepen their skill set and learn to teach others at the Conservatory or community garden sites. In 2024, GPCA will host another cohort of
students and returning participants, and the funds from CHIditarod will help purchase supplies for that program.

Global Garden Refugee Training Farm

Global Garden Refugee Training Farm is 100 refugee families who turned a one-acre vacant lot in Albany Park into a green oasis where they have grown food for themselves and their neighbors since 2012. They plan to use the funds to build an outdoor kitchen and gathering space at the farm for their refugee families to prepare and enjoy meals with their community, and the farm will also hold public events and cooking classes in the space.

Care for Friends

This group provides fundamental food, clothing and healthcare programs for individuals in Chicago experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Their “no questions asked” policy removes the most common barriers to assistance and connect service providers to those in need. The grant they receive will help to build out a new community center kitchen in their new headquarters in Lincoln Park in 2025.

Chatham Avalon Ministries Food Pantry

This 20-year-old food pantry, run entirely by volunteers, is dedicated to eliminating hunger and food deficits and providing sustainable living services. The pantry provides food service to clients on Saturday mornings and two of their freezers stopped working this year. The
infrastructure grant will go toward purchasing two new freezers to better facilitate their capability to properly maintain food service to their clientele.

Circle Urban Ministries

This organization in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood serves over 1,000 individuals per month through their Daily Bread Food Pantry. An influx of new residents in the community due to the recent wave of migration to the Chicago area has recently forced the group to double their capacity, and this grant will help purchase new shelving, refrigeration, a new door, and a skate
wheel conveyor to better serve their clients.

DeKalb County Community Gardens/Rooted for Good

This organization was selected as lead agency for the DeKalb County Local Food Purchase Assistance program, and that grant supports local socially disadvantaged farmers and provides fresh produce, protein, and dairy to neighbors who are food insecure. They purchase more than 3,000 pounds of frozen meat each month for this program, and due to the strictures of the LFPA grant, they cannot purchase enough storage space to support the program. The CHIditarod
infrastructure grant will purchase an additional two-door freezer to allow for more flexibility with food deliveries and pick ups and the ability to increase meat purchases.

Evanston Grows

This organization’s mission is to increase healthy food access, promote food literacy, and advance health equity by building a local fresh food system that is just, sustainable, and resilient. They grow organic produce on farms and gardens around Evanston, then share this produce at distribution points in Evanston’s most historically underserved neighborhoods. This grant will be used to purchase a large hoop house for one of their newest farms in the heart of the 5th ward, long a fresh food desert. The hoop house will double the number of seedlings they can grow and multiply their yields.

Experimental Station

Located in the Woodlawn community on Chicago’s south side, this organization builds independent cultural infrastructure by providing resources that respond to local needs. Their 61st Street Farmers Market has been open since 2008 and works to build a healthy food culture in the community. Each year, the market provides hands-on food and gardening education to
nearly 300 local youth and free garden plots to senior and adult residents of the Jackson Park Terrace affordable housing community. This grant will purchase a hoop house and irrigation system for the garden on the housing property to increase yields in this underserved neighborhood.

Hamdard Health Alliance

This organization, serving families in Cook and DuPage Counties, has a mission to positively impact the health and well-being of individuals and families by delivering culturally responsive health care services. Their Adult Day Services, Food Rx Pantry program, Care Coordination, and Insurance Navigation program give individuals of all ages the knowledge and resources to
actively participate in their own care. The Food Rx program allows patients living with food insecurity to get a food prescription from their provider to visit the Addison food pantry. The CHIditarod grant will help them purchase proper storage units to maintain the freshness of perishable food items for the community.

JOURNEYS | The Road Home

This nonprofit provides both shelter and social services to the homeless and those at risk of homelessness in north/northwest suburban Cook County. As part of their services they operate a comprehensive Food Assistance Program out of their walk-in social service and counseling center. In the last two years alone, food pantry requests at JOURNEYS have increased by
122%, and this grant will help the organization expand their daily meal program from five days per week to every day to better address clients’ immediate and long-term nutrition needs.

Sustainable Transformational Financial Wellness Education, Inc.

This organization offers seminars and provides resources in financial literacy, nutrition, academics, and emotional wellness for students at Holy Trinity High School. They also feed 350 students in response to those students’ unmet nutritional needs. The CHIditarod grant will help supply those students with surplus food throughout the school day, as well as during programs aimed at educating the student body about food insecurity.

Imagine Englewood If…

For 25 years, this organization’s mission has been to strengthen and empower the Greater Englewood community through education in healthy living, environmental awareness, and positive communication skills. Faced with growing food insecurity in their community and limited opportunities to purchase fresh, affordable, nutritious food during the Covid-19
pandemic, the Strong Frontlines program launched in 2020 to offer fresh and healthy meals, non-perishable food, and snacks to more than 350 residents per week, on site at the Peace Campus as well as delivery to homebound clients. Funding from the CHIditarod Foundation will support ingredients and preparation for the lunch meals and snack kits for the Strong Frontlines
program.

Shepherd’s Hope LTD

Since 2015, Shepherd’s Hope has operated a Family Feeding Center, providing nearly 9,000 Greater Englewood neighbors with fresh, nutritious meals weekly. The current hours of operation allow homeless individuals to have lunch and dinner every day. The CHIditarod grant will support the purchase of one new upright freezer and two new chest freezers to replace old, worn out appliances that are unable to be maintained any further.

The Evolved Network, NFP

This organization works to empower youth in Chicago’s underserved South and West sides through a unique educational curriculum that integrates gardening, cooking, and relationship- building. The work emphasizes both the tangible aspects of food preparation and community engagement and the intangible values of love, trust, and personal significance in communal activities. The Soul…Food program is an educational program emphasizing food choices’ deeper meaning and the connection between land, food, and soul. The program addresses critical gaps in access to nutritious food options and education. The CHIditarod grant will support 100 hours of curriculum that covers the basics of nutrition but also the social and environmental implications of food choices.

GirlForward

This organization is a community of support for new arrival refugee girls in high school that provides mentorship, education, and a safe space for girls to learn, grow, and connect. The after school space provides access to free resources like hygiene items, clothing, and non-perishable food items. While the program was not designed with food insecurity in mind, but a realization that all of their clients were living in food-insecure situations, especially during summer breaks, so GirlForward provides two meals per day in the summer to the young people they serve as
well as healthy after school snacks throughout the school year.

Friendship Community Place

This organization, located in an affordable housing building in Jefferson Park, Chicago, recognizes that food insecurity is an ever-present concern for individuals and families who reside in affordable housing. In 2022, following worsening food insecurity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Friendship Community Place opened an industrial kitchen in the building’s anchor space. Many residents, several of whom have experienced food insecurity themselves, have
completed food handler training and have become volunteer chefs in the space’s kitchen. They prepare and serve 150-200 free meals weekly for the building’s residents and other community members. CHIditarod funding will help them continue to meet those food needs for their residents as well as keep a Love Fridge stocked with daily healthy snacks.