Food Justice Fundraiser!
By donating to Advocates for Urban Agriculture, you're investing in agricultural landscapes that bloom into community health. Your support helps us advocate for just policies, build capacity, peer-to-peer mentorship, provide workshops on climate-resilient growing practices to food insecure communities and working-class growers in Chicago. Read more below on our achievements or read through our impact reports here. Despite how light-hearted it sounds to grow flowers and vegetables, it is a deeply political act that time and time again is met with animosity from government officials and developers. Specifically on the South and West sides, growing is a direct response to the lack of nutrient dense healthy food options available in many neighborhoods.
Disinvested communities have, for generations, relied on growing their own food as a form of resistance to food apartheid. In doing so, they have been met with burdensome fines, trees and pollinator plants taking years to establish being mowed down by city landscapers, and aldermen who withhold support that prevents growers from even using the fire hydrant on their sidewalk, at times forcing elders to haul water in 5 gallon buckets, jugs and office water coolers from a neighbors house to their plants.
This gap in education about the true ecological and social benefits of community gardens and farms along with our shared commitment to racial and environmental justice drives our work, strategy, and the enduring relationships we nurture. We employ a popular education model which meets neighbors and government officials where they’re at to combat misinformation and make connections between the environment and our daily lives in the city.
Since 2002, AUA has helped develop over 200 community-led farms, and gardens across Chicago through our Good Practices for Growing in Chicago Program (capacity building, mentorship, soil health, and water access), Ward Ambassadors Program, and policy advocacy.
AUA’s has distributed over $989k+ to 98 growers primarily on Chicago's south and west sides. In total, AUA has received 3.1MIL in funding requests from the community-led urban farms and gardens.
Since 2022 AUA has co-lead the Urban Agriculture Committee for the Chicago Mayor's Office Food Equity Council's. To date we have collaboratively:
Brought to fruition the Urban Agriculture Business License Ordinance, co-created with south and west side community partners and growers
Actively co-designed the request for proposals and participated in grant decision making for the city’s Community Growers Program which has awarded over 2MIL to 24 urban farms
Currently co-leading Chicago’s first Urban Agriculture Plan
AUA has delivered over 70 urban agriculture workshops and gatherings, primarily in community and cultural spaces on Chicago’s south and west side, reaching thousands of community members.
AUA’s programs directly address critical barriers facing growers on Chicago’s South and West Sides by providing technical support, funding, and resources that expand access to safe growing spaces and improve long-term sustainability.