The Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) works to ensure that all Chicagoans, especially those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) have the right to produce and access culturally appropriate, nutritious, sustainable, and fair food. Their Productive Landscapes Project aims to encourage and support the development of urban agriculture spaces in the Chicago region by addressing the challenge that urban farmers’ often face: stable and long-term land access. This report details the process for creating the Chicago Land Access Pathways (CLAP) website, including key insights from interviews with local land-owning institutions and local urban farmers experiences in securing land. It also highlights the historical and current disinvestment in Chicago’s BIPOC and low-income communities, its negative impact in accessing fresh and affordable food and current initiatives of the City of Chicago to address these challenges. This report concludes with next steps and recommendations for the Productive Landscapes project to continue its work to support urban farmers access land, provide food to communities and achieve food sovereignty.
Download "Supporting Chicago’s BIPOC and Low-Income Communities: A Website for Urban Farmers to Secure Land"
Publication tags: Field Reports - Food Systems and Agriculture, Racial Equity, Urban Agriculture
Lauren is a native of Harlem, New York City, where she grew up observing economic, social and health inequities in her neighborhood compared to the more affluent communities across the city. She graduated from Bates College in 2019 where she received her B.S. in Biology with a minor in African American studies. Following undergrad, Lauren worked with City Year AmeriCorps in Harlem, New York, where she provided academic and social-emotional support to middle school students and facilitated after school programming. After graduating with her masters of public health from Washington University in St. Louis in May 2022, Lauren is excited to utilize her strengthened public health skills to support the efforts of organizations working to fight poverty and hunger in the U.S.
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Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) co-develops, facilitates, advocates for, and supports implementation of policies that advance food justice and food sovereignty in Chicago and across the region. CFPAC envisions a food system where all Chicagoans, regardless of race, class, gender, and/or social identity, have the right to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced through community-driven, ecologically regenerative, and economically viable processes. The Council recognizes the history and modern maintenance of structural racism in Chicago and across the country that have led to massive inequities in land access, food business ownership, food security, and political power along lines of racial identity. CFPAC works to address these inequities and dismantle racist structures in the food system by building local political power, supporting frontline workers throughout the food system, and facilitating Black/Brown partnerships and understanding.
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