Your Circle of Impact Newsletter! 🍅 "The Chicago Farm-Times"

You are receiving this specialized newsletter because you are a

2019 Growing Home Circle of Impact Supporter. Thank you!

Letter From Janelle,

Executive Director

Fall is our absolute favorite time of the year on the farm. The vibrant colors from the harvest along with the crisp, cool air make for a magnificent, peaceful slice of bliss. This fall, Covid-19 has changed our day to day but we remain Growing Strong!

Our Employment Training program pivoted to a robust, hybrid curriculum with farm training groups in the am and virtual classrooms in the afternoon. Our Production Assistants have shown their dedication as we continue to teach our curriculums successfully. Our 1st graduation this year was amidst the pandemic and although broadcasted via Zoom, it was very heartfelt to witness the appreciation from the graduates and our staff!

Farm leadership, led by Fred and Willie, modified procedures to impressively continue to keep everything vibrant and fruitful on the farm. This was no small task with new distancing protocol and smaller farmer groups. We invite you to join us to embrace the beauty and peace on the farm.

During this time we have also partnered with new orgs in the community. With these new collaborations, we have been able to achieve 90% summer distribution with no cost to Englewood residents! Our community engagement has truly shown creativity and tenacity with online cooking shows, nutrition classes for the youth and even participating with community orgs with socially-distanced events, just to name a few. In August we held our second virtual event! The development team stepped it up with our Iron Chef Style Virtual Cook-Off Fundraiser! It was a fun-filled event for everyone! So much so, that we are discussing turning this into an annual event - look out for more to come.

We thank you for your essential contributions as a 2019 Circle of Impact member that helped this growth! Due to the pandemic, we weren't able to send our acknowledgements to you earlier this year. However, along with this newsletter, be on the lookout for a special Growing Home snail mail package. And be sure to check out your private Circle of Impact Online Cookbook by Growing Home Kitchen! Go to growinghomeinc.org/cookbook and enter the password "homegrownchef".

Just like the hearty tomatoes on our farm, we all are strong and still growing. We hope you enjoy reading about our latest news from the farm and our community and we extend an invitation for you to join us at one of our upcoming events.

Stay well --

People

Our 2020 Hybrid Employment Training Program

💻 Provided hotspots with unlimited data plans & laptops to PA's without access

📕 Redeveloped with virtual training workshops, job-readiness & environmental literacy curriculum

⭐️ One-on-one case management & emotional resiliency curriculum

😷 Small group training on the farm to stay in line with safe practices

🎓 1 virtual graduation and 2 more to go!

👥 50+ production assistants through our 2020 Employment Training program

🎉 Congratulations to our Cohort 1 graduates: Stacy, Dewayne, Eugene, Shana, Paula, Keith, Gabriel, Deshawn, Elijah, Ariela, Derrick, Jermaine & Anna 🎉

Farm

Our dedicated, audacious team led by Fred, Director of Urban Farm, and Willie, Farm & Program Manager, have kept us still growing and producing beautiful food!

90%

of our produce distributed to residents and neighbors at no cost to them

new partnerships to help distribute more food (see organizations below)

bee apiaries on our site (up from 5 last year)

households receiving a weekly or biweekly veggie CSA box

new hoop houses constructed on our site and BRIMMING with tomatoes & fresh veggies

Thank you to all the incredible partner organizations who've helped us distribute our food in Chicago!

Community

Community Engagement led by LaQuandra Fair has been incredible:

💚 8+ Amazing masked-volunteer groups!

📚 Participated in Back to School community events serving over 100 students

🥣 Weekly Growing Home Kitchen demos with our farm fresh organic food

🌱 A full summer of virtual gardening & nutrition courses with Boys & Girls club

🚲 Hosted a rest stop for Think Outside da Block's Roll N Peace Event! This event addresses public safety concerns while addressing neighborhood health & wellness

Organizational Excellence

Growing Home on Chicago TV!

As part of their Chicago Tonight "In Your Neighborhood Series", Brandis Friedman and WTTW came to visit Growing Home & learn about our work and the good in Englewood.

Watch the August 13 clip here