Local Foods Chicago

Growing Sales, Learning Experiences Give Local Foods A Happy Anniversary

An anniversary is an occasion for celebration. And that is just what Chicago’s Local Foods will be doing this Saturday (June 24) with its Tacos and Tiki Party to mark the 2nd anniversary of its retail store in the city’s Bucktown neighborhood. Anniversaries are also times for reflection, though. As CEO Andrew Lutsey looks back, he views the first two years as successful, but says that it has been a learning experience that has produced some changed expectations and priorities.

Academy for Global Citizenship

Chefs Playground to Benefit Academy for Global Citizenship’s Innovation in Education

Imagine a school teaching Chicago children from kindergarten through 12th grade on a seven-acre campus — three of those acres devoted to urban agriculture — designed by famed architect Jeanne Gang’s Studio Gang. Imagine this school incorporating local citizenship, sustainability, Good Food, social justice and other values into its curriculum… serving organic, locally sourced, made-from-scratch food in its cafeteria… and producing more energy than it uses. Then imagine this school is not in an upscale Chicago neighborhood or tony suburb, but rather on the industrial, mostly Hispanic, mostly low-income Southwest Side. That is the vision for the expansion of the Academy for Global Citizenship — for which the charter school’s foundation will raise money at its 5th Annual Chefs Playground on June 9 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

FamilyFarmed Better Together With Jack Johnson At Chicago Concert

FamilyFarmed is a natural ally for star singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, an environmentalist and supporter of sustainable food. We also are benefitting from the financial generosity of his All At Once Network, which matches donations to dozens of non-profit organizations. But FamilyFarmed learned that Jack Johnson is generous with something extra — his time — when we attended his June 2 concert at Chicago’s Huntington Bank Pavilion to participate in the “Village Green” with other local non-profits.

Urban Ag Bus Tour
Gov. Bruce Rauner visit to Good Food Festival & Conference

Policy Makers Increasingly Recognize That Good Food Is A Movement

by Bob Benenson, FamilyFarmed There is ample statistical, financial, and anecdotal support for the contention that the Good Food movement is, indeed, a movement — one that is expanding markets for healthier food, produced more sustainably, more humanely, and with greater fairness to small farmers, entrepreneurs, and farm workers. This Good Food sector is engaging the interest and participation of millions of Read more about Policy Makers Increasingly Recognize That Good Food Is A Movement[…]