What could a non-extractive agriculture project look like? That’s the question Erika Allen, 2023 Rachel’s Network Catalyst Awardee, set out to answer. Erika wears many hats. She leads the Urban Growers Collective (UGC), a Black- and women-led agriculture nonprofit Chicago that cultivates eight urban farms on 11 acres of land. They work to grow a more just and equitable local food system which supports health, economic development, healing, and creativity. Their job training programs support youth and beginner BIPOC farmers, while increasing access to affordable, culturally-affirming, and nutritionally dense food.
Erika also manages the Green Era Campus, a project revitalizing and developing a former brownfield site into a vibrant renewable energy facility and hub for urban agriculture. The Green Era Campus reduces food waste and creates compostable biomass energy that’s returned to the grid.
In June, Rachel’s Network visited Urban Growers Collective for a two-day program featuring community-building activities, meetings with Chicago-area environmental funders and leaders, and tours of both the Green Era Campus (including the Midwest’s only community led-anaerobic digester) and the South Chicago Farm, the largest of the UGC owned farms.
Guests tour the anaerobic digester at the Green Era Campus.
A bright and sunny day welcomed a dozen Rachel Network friends, Catalyst community members, and staff to the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation, where we gathered to ground ourselves in the history of the neighborhood, as well as learn about the development of both UGC and the Green Era Campus.
UGC board member Janelle St. John joined Kareeshma Ali from the Pritzker-Traubert Foundation and Gillian Knight from the Healthy Communities Foundation on a fascinating panel about the ways funders can lean into community-led projects and be better partners to practitioners on the ground (and in this case, on the farms).
Participants then visited the Green Era Campus where we witnessed the production scale of the anaerobic digester up close. It’s hard to describe the scale of the digester (and equally hard to describe the pungent, earth aroma of the digestate). We saw the work that had gone into the process of remediation, revitalization, and restoration of this land. As we walked through a field which had been repopulated by native plants and wildflowers, it was easy to see Erika’s vision for a vibrant community park and Community Education Center which will include a teaching kitchen, classrooms, and operational space for both Green Era and Urban Growers Collective.
Guests make flower crowns at an herbalism workshop.
From there, we toured the seven-acre South Chicago farm which serves four primary functions: providing food, training, mentoring, and land access. I was particularly fascinated by the futuristic looking solar-powered Growing Dome, a multipurpose structure which allows the farmers to extend their growing season, increase production, and propagate herbs and vegetable starters.
We participated in a heartfelt and at times, emotional, workshop led by herbalist and licensed mental health counselor Reverend Kim Crutcher. As we built crowns of mugwort, yarrow, chamomile, and aster (cuttings taken from plants that were growing all around us), our group processed what we had heard, smelled, felt, and seen all day. We put on our crowns and stepped into our power.
A blistering summer day didn’t stop us from toasting the land and our hosts at a golden hour reception, which was followed by a hearty meal of vegan soul food (catered by a partner who sourced ingredients right from the land we were on). It was hard not to be inspired by the work happening in Chicago. In fact, it was easy for participants to be imaginative and think about how to support initiatives like this in their own communities.
A day of walking the land, of eating incredible food, and connecting with amazing like-minded leaders felt like a much needed and welcome balm amidst the current political landscape. It was a reminder that when women come together, learn and share ideas, we will thrive, and the world will be better for it. Thank you to our partners at UGC, especially Erika Allen and Brandon Lov for bringing this program to life.
For questions and to learn how to participate in programs like these, please email info@rachelsnetwork.org.
Rachel’s Network Catalyst Program Director Shreya Durvasula fosters collective and individual impact among Catalyst awardees and members and creates grant programs grounded in justice and equity.