Come peak harvest season this year, residents of North Lawndale will have access to the bounty from a new greenhouse and about two dozen gardens throughout the neighborhood, full of tomatoes, peppers, squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, pear and cherry trees.
The local organizations that helped launch the gardens as a part of the Garden 2 Table Pipeline during Covid are now expanding with the Garden 2 Table Farm at 1431 S. Harding St. Where there are 20 community garden beds and an agriculture pod for year-round farming, the Pipeline is adding a greenhouse and farm structure for offices, workshops and presentations. They hope the greenhouse will be completed this spring and the farm structure by 2029.
The new lot will help the Garden 2 Table Pipeline grow over 8,200 pounds of produce annually and, using that produce, disperse 1,000 meals a week across North Lawndale. The efforts aim to create a resilient food system in a neighborhood that lacked any full-service grocery stores when the project launched. It officially started during Covid, when a handful of local organizations amped up efforts to provide and distribute nutrient-dense food by growing it themselves.
Today as a part of the Garden 2 Table Pipeline, seven hubs in North Lawndale give out free food that’s been donated or grown across their 23 gardens in the neighborhood. Four of the hubs — Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church, YMEN, the Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago, and the Street Vendors Association of Chicago — have commercial kitchens where they prepare hot food with ingredients grown in the gardens, hosting dinners to further foster community.
“It’s really a collaborative effort. Instead of having one site here, one site there, siloed, we have five sites, five sets of trucks, five sets of staff,” said Kimberly George, Garden 2 Table Pipeline coordinator and the community asset manager for YMEN, which offers academic, spiritual and emotional support services in North Lawndale.
Before the Garden 2 Table Pipeline officially started, another member organization, North Lawndale Greening Committee, tended nine community gardens — where today, as a part of the Pipeline, passersby are welcome to harvest the produce. The organization built additional gardens with funding from North Lawndale Fresh.
Agriculture pod
In early 2024, the Garden 2 Table Pipeline started growing food in its ag pod, a climate-controlled, hydroponic farm inside a repurposed shipping container. In its first year, the ag pod produced nearly one ton of leafy greens and herbs, plus involved 70 young people in urban agriculture practices.
ComEd and the Electric Power Research Institute provided the ag pod and trained recipients on how to use them. From there, Dr. Shemuel Israel — lead gardener of the ag pod and president of the North Lawndale Greening Committee — worked to make the ag pod’s produce the best it can be.
For example, Israel uses a refractometer to measure the concentration of sugars and proteins in the ag pod’s produce. He harvests plants when they have optimal nutrients.
“One of the long-term goals that we have is affecting the health of people,” Israel said. “What I’ve heard back from the community is that our food tastes really good.”
“The produce is extra big,” George said of the refractometer-checked plants. She added that some locals “didn’t want to kind of use those practices in part of the gardens too. And you could tell the difference. You could see a big difference.”
The Pipeline also considers community input when deciding what kind of produce to plant, both inside the year-round ag pod and seasonal community gardens.
For example, in the last two years, Israel and his two part-time employees started planting kale and greens in the ag pod in October, so that people could have locally sourced collard greens for their Thanksgiving dinners.
Israel said the goal is to, one day, sell about 20% of the greens to cover expenses associated with the ag pod. He also wants to sell seed starts and market-ready products, like seasonings made with Garden 2 Table Pipeline’s herbs or hot sauce that young entrepreneurs create from garden peppers.
Fresh produce, hot meals
Part of North Lawndale Fresh’s grants have funded commercial kitchens at four of Garden 2 Table Pipeline’s distribution hubs. The hubs host culinary and nutrition programs in their kitchens, as well as cook fresh produce from the gardens and other ingredients to organize free, hot meals every day of the week.
Recently, cooks have used the garden’s offerings to make sweet potato cheesecake, potato salad and collard greens, served alongside roast beef or ham.
George said Garden 2 Table organizations were already giving out hot meals four days of the week, and to prepare for cuts to federal SNAP benefits, they amped it up to every day. And late last year, Garden 2 Table Pipeline added four more food hubs to its ranks to increase distribution during anticipated SNAP cuts.
“We can make sure everybody knows at least where their next meal is coming from,” George said.
Every Saturday morning, YMEN hosts a big breakfast, where attendees share hot, prepared meals and food rescued from a restaurant or eatery.
“One of the things that I heard is that different people from different parts of the neighborhood who didn’t like each other are now sitting down and talking to each other at a meal,” Israel said of feedback from YMEN breakfasts.
“This is kind of like the breakfast meeting spot for a lot of people now,” George added. Attendees can also partake in YMEN’s clothes giveaway, free haircuts, and sometimes a shower truck.
George said one of the best forms of feedback she’s gotten is how people who once came to get a hot meal for themselves are now volunteering to serve others.
“Sometimes we’ll have a second meal or bag lunch or something for people to take,” George said. “They’ll take it and they’re like, ‘I don’t need it, but I’m going to give it to so-and-so.’ So we’re kind of changing people’s mindsets a little bit as far as looking out for other people.”
Where to find a hot meal in North Lawndale
- Monday at 1 p.m. at Stone Temple, 3622 W. Douglas
- Tuesday at 4 p.m. from Men Making a Difference, 1543 S. Homan
- Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Fuel Movement, 4244 W. Cermak
- Thursday at 11 a.m. at Firehouse CAC, 2111 S. Hamlin
- Friday at 12 p.m. at Stone Temple, 3622 W. Douglas
- Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at YMEN, 1241 S. Pulaski
- Sunday 9 a.m. to noon at Fuel Movement, 4244 W. Cermak
Garden locations
- African Heritage Garden – 1245 S. Central Park
- Historic Slumbusters – 1950 S. Trumbull
- Celestial Ministries – 2149 S. Drake
- BEET Garden – 4056 W. Cermak
- Perma Park – 1320 S. Pulaski
- CCA – 1200 S. Harding
- Stone Temple- 3622 W. Douglas Blvd
- Crystal’s Peace – 3852 W. Polk
- Lawndale Heritage Garden – 1509 S. Lawndale
- Cermak and Avers Youth Garden
- YMEN Pepper Garden #1 – 2230 S. Avers
- YMEN Pepper Garden #2 – 2260 S. Springfield
- YMEN Outdoor Campus Garden – 1241 S. Pulaski
- Bike Box Garden – 1300 S. Pulaski
- MMAD Summer Garden -1500 S. Homan
- St. Agatha’s- 3147 W. Douglas
- G2T FARM – 1431-41 S. Harding
- Sister Pat’s on Central Park – 2151 S. Central Park
- Fire House #19 – Ogden/Hamlin
- Preserve Garden – Slow Foods
- Triangle Garden
- Buie Garden
- Betty Swan Arboretum
