Hi. This is Paul Zellizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your profitability, your positive impact, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have 1 request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, It helps more people learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Thank you so much. Today, I am super excited.

Get ready, in garden geeks. I am here with Erica Allen, and I am like, hopefully not gonna be apologizing too much for how deeply I'm geeking out on gardens and how excited I am. Our topic is Pathways to Freedom, the intersection between community food and justice. In and Erica is the cofounder and CEO strategic development and programs for the Urbans Grower Collective in and the president of GreenERA Educational and the co owner of GreenERA Sustainability Partners. She's been involved in the community food and justice space since 2002. As far as I could find, it might be even before that. So, Erica, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Paul. I'm so grateful to be here.

It is so inspiring to get a little sense, do a deep dive into your background and the work you've been doing for a really long time, and we're gonna get into what it looks like now. But before we get into in what you're doing now. What would somebody wanna know about Erika Allen? What's the short version of your backstory that would give some context for the work that you're doing now, Erika?

In That's such a simple yet complex question. I will say that just, you know, my pronouns are she, her, hers, And we and us, I'm a visual artist by training to, kinda move from the farm,

in Family Farm and to come to Chicago to

go to art school at SAIC and never left. I really have developed as an adult here in Chicago, in interested in, you know, the intersection between the arts and social justice and understanding the historic legacy and in physically manifests structural racism within our environments. And I'm a trans psychotherapist. I have an honorary PhD in public health in from my alma mater where I received my master's. And I'm a mom of a 16 year old, and I live with a parent.

Okay. Got it. And part of the thing that, like, not only do I share so much, at alignment with the the food justice and, you know, unpacking racism and trying to do something about that. But your original training is in art therapy, and my original training is in community mental health. So just anything you could say about well-being and in change, and how does food and community work fit with Erika Allen, the art therapist into artists. Like, what help us understand that intersection.

And I think the intersection is really healing. Right? Like, thinking about healing our communities, in Which I think we all in the helping professions think about or, you know, from how our spirituality, you know, in the multitudes of ways that people in have their connection with their higher power and their ancestry and, you know, all of those things. I'm a universalist. Like, I I I I believe in in Supporting everybody's, you know, development of their their highest character and their and their destiny. Right? So For me, it's really about the the ways that we manifest with whatever our passion is. You know? The most powerful healers are wounded healers who, you know, utilize their own experience to be able to support and in Create change within within our communities of practice. So I I really think about it in that way and think about, in You know, therapeutic interventions that don't take into consideration the daily stressors in and trauma that's unresolved, especially in communities of color and and low income folks, that poverty continues to elicit. In And when we have those disconnects, it's hard to do the therapeutic intervention.

Right? If I'm always worried about putting food on on the table, paying my rent, you know, in Whatever other things may be happening within that environment that are kinda companions of poverty, which tend to be not favorable, in That was such an important thing to address, the the constellation of life experiences, skill sets, and creativity For me, to address the food issues, like, okay, and to create pathways for economic development through that to really resolve and dig very deep into one issue, that there is a tangible. Right? A tangible of a seed that could grow and then what that unlocks. And seeing families and people stabilize because of it and being able to move along a continuum, often a circular continuum, in but a continuum

of progress. Yeah.

So that's kind of a long winded response, but very much how I think and work in And how I connect all of those pieces.

Right. So you landed on food and particularly how food intersects with and interacts with in community. And if somebody wasn't super familiar with food and how in Food works. I mean, our we're talking about food injustice, but let's start with, like, food and injustice. In the communities that you're passionate about, in how does food and community help us understand some of the suffering that you were seeing when you said in That ultimately led to the creation of something called the Urban Growers Collective. There was a there was a particular in suffering that you were present to or sufferings. Help somebody who maybe hasn't has had as much experience or kind of front row seats into seeing something. What were you seeing that you said, I gotta do something with food and justice and community?

I mean, for me, it's very much around in The complexity, the the historic legacy of how communities have been exploited by the food system, But also knowing that food is our culture. It's how we connect and that there is something in that. There is something in the in process of reclaiming food growing as a healing force, but also as a real tangible of I can I can grow this food, and it can offset my day to day living? And I can blow off some steam. I can connect with people. Maybe I can resource differently. In These are things that we did historically even pre civil rights. This is we always we took care of each other. And there's something powerful about being in a generation.

In I'm a I'm a generation kind I'm a what am I? Is it I forget all a generation I'm

a xer or whatever. Gen x. You

and I both. Yeah. Yes. You know, we're like in We're kind of in that space of, like, a practicality. Like, I could sit with a family and talk about all the things and give tools, right, give tools as a therapist for how to cope with the challenges. But most most of the time, if the in Poverty is alleviated. Not only will the therapy be beneficial, but the family system becomes to strengthens. And in That that work and that time really takes takes on a a sustainable trajectory.

In But if I'm just, you know, like, we just can't have Thanksgiving indigenous peoples celebration last week, in You know, there's so much food. Right? There's turkey giveaways. There's this and that. I mean, there's just food everywhere, and then it just goes away. And that's something that I I mean, it's great that people are generous, but it doesn't necessarily alleviate the root causes of why people don't have need that. Right? Like, why and we feel better in when we contribute, but we're not really getting to the root or creating new systems that make it so that everybody has both the leisure time to grow their own food, in The pleasure of preparing their own food and community, all the kind of things that when you have a well resourced community, you can make those choices. In So that was important to me because I had the skill set. You know, I kind of really activated and made a shift, and I had a epiphany post 911.

In because I was running a food pantry. I was running emergency, like, rent services, clothing to pot like, kind of basic emergency with an an idea in of moving along and continue on to enrichment, right, to the healing part, to the to the arts, to all of the things that that allow us to know ourselves and each other better. And I realized that when that event happened, that the only place I could think of Without knowing all the the extent of what was happening was my parents, because we had a farm, and in That was the only and I and that's, like, 150 miles away. And I just my entire just, again, in almost like like I can relive the feeling, the sinking, like, feeling of, like, what am I doing? You know? Like, this is in We have 7 days of food for this entire city, and nobody knows how to grow food. And I had just started, like, in seeing some empty boxes. You know, growing up on a family farm, you're not necessarily trying to go back on farm when you're at our

you know, you're

like, I ain't trying to do that. But I I was like, well, you know, maybe we can part of the enrichment, we can start engaging some families. And these weedy boxes are just sitting here, and no one's growing any food. And

in Wouldn't it be cool when families come to pick up

their very we really mindfully put together emergency food bags that they could also get some fresh produce. And right at that same time, my father was developing Growing Power. In And I I saw the models, and I was like, we need this in Chicago because of that event. So it's very much a for me, in I, as a healer, as a artist, at the time, I didn't see myself as a healing in the healing profession at all, was very much like, in I I can do this. Like, this is something I grew up. I know how to grow food. And that just it clicked, and it was like, this is gonna be my modality. In I'll still do the arts.

I have the training. I can do those things. But first, this this issue needs to be resolved, in And 25 years later, we're here.

Yeah. And so you said, alright. I'm gonna lean into food in an urban space and communities that in don't know. We'd have access to quality affordable food. And give us a sense, like, where did you start? What were some of your questions? Ins and, you know, like food requires land and, you know, or the soil and water and light and hopefully, a little bit of clean air, and that's not always easy to success in certain you know, I live in downtown Albuquerque. Not everybody has access to those things in downtown Albuquerque. Right? Help us understand what were in some of those early, like, alright. I'm going into food and community and justice, but some of these in communities that I care about don't have access to these things right now.

Like, what were you seeing and how did you start to work? How did you start to make positive momentum when there's a lot of history that an idea like this is pushing up against.

For me, it was in Very much first in discovery and relearning, like, kind of like a coming home kind of cycle of Understanding what was already in place. Like, I'm, I'm kinda conservative, and just because I have a brilliant idea, I I'm not gonna just activate it because I can see that as a possibility. I'm gonna look and see who's doing what. And so I spent a lot of time doing that and then relearning some things. And I I really came to the conclusion that the vision I had, in What I could see at that time wasn't showing up in the way that I could see moving the needle around the root causes of food insecurity and in inequity. And because the systems that were being developed collectively, really, at growing power, in There was fertility understanding. There was a density, and, like, kind of concept of urban ag was just emerging. There's always been food grown in cities in Since we're I don't know, probably beginning of that civilization, really.

But being able to do it within the context of not having land, in Competing with real estate, creating an appetite for the importance, reigniting folks' understanding, in All of those things required a complex approach of, like, showing, like, showing it can be done. So there's a lot of, in I'm a show to you that you can we can do this. Right. And some really amazing, you know, leaders and mentors along my journey who in Kinda created open and flexible spaces for me to be able to do that work along with the teams of folks that I've worked with over the years and people who've in intern and folks who have brought in new ideas and concepts and just learning and building and showing and learning and building and showing very close to the ground. In And that just sort of ignites an understanding, the beauty of food growing in our landscape. Right? So it was a lot of that. In It was engaging youth right away as youth employment. That was actually what my thesis was was on, was creating a alternative sentencing program using art therapy adolescent, criminally involved youth, you know, like, really providing healing and productive experiences through art, and I just pivoted it to food.

Right? Like, let's do restorative justice in our communities and grow in food and grow beautiful spaces and be in service to elders who might need help, you know, moving tools back and forth and in Just having kindness and generosity in spaces that that were empty lots or spaces that just the community itself felt in work for them and seeing and watching and proving we are here and the children your children are in are not only welcome. This is for your children. And that takes time in communities. It takes time, and it's not something that that is effective if you are transient. So I think that that really being able to use public space, the Chicago Park District has always been in sort of the great connector and equalizer throughout all of our all of our this this city, especially, which is a kind of a city of little cities in all kinds of, like, enclaves of different immigrant communities and migration. And it's just an amazing city, but it's a tough city. In And parks are where we've always been able to connect. And so to begin this work in the parks, to be able to talk about the commons that we all are connected by and to grow food for Chicago and those spaces in beautiful, delicious, and vibrant ways That kind of it was important to you to blow people's minds to see these gorgeous, abundant plants growing And that people could begin remembering and recognizing the food growing in their environment.

So all those strategies were really effective. They They help move the needle on policy. Now we have an old industry in urban ag here that is social and also, you know, kinda in Capital investment, the the full spectrum, and couple generations in of folks who who get it and are continuing the work. And it's it's this pandemic we just, you know, came out of. And, you know, the aftermath, I think it's really It's really proven that those spaces matter to everybody despite income, privilege, etcetera. In People came. I've never had so many volunteers who came and really impacted their mental health to be able to come and just pull weeds in come and just be in community, do and contributing and doing something positive and having that be in Beneficial for folks who we are already focused on and having a history of understanding how to actually grow food in, in You know, challenging accessible spaces. It was helpful for for all of that.

Right. One of the things you said, Erica, it's a it's a pet peeve of mine. You know, use a fancy language. If an MBA was here, they might call it market research. Some people might call it assessment. Like, in Check out what the hell the people who came before you are doing before you launch a thing, please. Right? I see in so many very well meaning impact oriented folks, and they come along as if nobody had ever been concerned about x issue, whatever your impact area, whether it's food or gender issues or trans issue, and, like, Somebody's thought about it, but it doesn't mean there's not room for new innovations. But, like, please, can we start off with who came before and what what in what's been built and how do we learn from it and add to it as opposed to the other feels like there's a lot of ego.

Nobody ever thought of this before, and I'm gonna come in and save it. Right? So I just wanted to highlight what you said there, like starting with an assessment or you didn't use that word. I don't remember how you said it, but you you definitely said, I I looked around what was already happening in this space before I lodged it, and I just wanted to highlight that and get on my soapbox a little

It's a good soapbox. I mean, attribution is especially within social justice or in Dismantling racism and and all forms of oppression is is is being curious. Right? Like, being curious and connecting with people, in Finding out who does what and who are the folks that the unsung heroes that that you may not know, like, could be 2 blocks away and and doing something amazing that We can join and not have to start from scratch. Right? That is it's hard to do. It's It's it's hard to do when you're in the fever of your vision, especially when the passion gets ignited with people. In But there's such a different responsibility with growing things because you're dealing with life. You're dealing with the 5th dimension. There's a responsibility.

And and the more people who can tend to these spaces, these groves, these these, like, like, beautiful in Arenas that people can heal and connect with each other in different ways and also have conflict and and resolve it or not resolve it, but we're engaged, really does that process of curiosity and meeting people and going to the you know, in Looking to see who's doing what and asking questions like, hey. I'm I'm thinking about this. Is this something that would be welcome? Or in What is it that you that you've been wanting to do that you just don't have the bandwidth? Can I help with that? Just to get used to and support in What's there already just amplifies the ability to meet all of our collective goals and and to create the kind of, I think, the peaceful world that we want and to be of use. There's nothing more regardless of I always get that confused. Irregardless or regardless of whatever, in of level of privilege and resources. Again, the pandemic showed us all how vulnerable we are and how much we need community.

In So I just think that is, like that

is such an important principle, and, you know, it's just something that needs to be embraced.

In So put on your granular social entrepreneur glasses just for a little bit, Erica. Like, when you were first getting started, you said You got this partnership going with the parks. Like, talk to us a little bit, like, just basic questions like capital, like, you know, some of the capital with access to the land. It sounds like the park system helped you get that. Like, how were you getting people you were talking about young people. How are you getting young people involved? Where did you get your 1st start up money? Like, you know yeah. Just all the like, did you take a in salary. Was this volunteer for a while? Like, just if a if a very greedy social entrepreneur was like, okay.

I got the concept, but, like, what does it look like to start this particular initiative? In you know, you're talking, you know, September 11th. Right? So we we're we're going back 20 years now. Right?

In Yes. We are we're going back to 2001, so very much

22 years. Yeah. Almost 23 years because this will go live in 2024. Yes.

Yeah. A long time ago. I mean, for me, it was very much a a kind of a pivot, right, a pivot from from in Being an artist and being a community based artist and already kind of being on a certain trajectory and then pivoting. Right? So the pivot, in I I was teaching in the parks as a as a contractor. I was already doing that work. And so as a

in Multidisciplinary artists, so I just look

at things and and try to put them together differently and then wanting to kind of in do this this this approach through the art psychotherapy work. It was it was just a a matter of in Talking about the vision and being in the right place at the right time and really kind of looking at what what is it

in What is it? It is so hard to do this

work even when you have resources. But if we're gonna really create a space and change in Our systems, we have to operate like we don't have resources. And it was real easy because I didn't have any. So, You know, I spent a year before I even founded the office, you know, returning and working with my dad. You know, I I helped write grants. I just try to help solidify his work because I needed that to be solid to even open an office. So it took a year to do that. And, you know, $10 an hour.

I don't know. Just I was I I'm having the expenses I have now, so I could do it. And also, as a as an artist, as a creative, I'm not primarily motivated by money. To me, it's a material that I need to do these things in and to live a life the way that I need to live the life, but I'm not motivated by money. I have respect for money. It is a tool. It's a very precious in tool to be able to do the things in the world. And so I I had to put the tools together to do this work, and part of that was that investigation.

Right. I'll use that as, like, more we're in this kind of this this time frame where we have to really look into things. Right? We have to really examine to make sure the facts are the facts in and

the truth is the truth.

At that time, it was I had to go see what was out there. Part of that and that those conversations was, in You know, demonstrating that I could do some stuff. You know, there was my arts career, started I graduated from art school in 1990 in 1 90 1 90 2. Kinda claimed both the years. Took a little extra time to travel, do a fellowship.

In But my 1st job

was really outdoor arts, you know, training program for young people who were compensated to make art. And so that set, in That was my 1st job, and I didn't really think about, like, what am I gonna do with this art degree and, like, pay my pay my rent or any of those things. I just in It hadn't. I was so young. I didn't really think about it. And the art the art training, the school wasn't in really geared towards, like, college, kind of, like, you're gonna graduate, and then you gotta in Be prepared for a career to take care of yourself. So this we were lucky to kinda get channeled into this program. All I have to say, in The last year of that outdoor program before they built a big, like, mall thing on this empty block in downtown Chicago that used to be in Kind of the red light y kind of theater district back in the day where we did this these outdoor art making, You know, bringing youth from all over the city.

It's it's called gallery 30 37 at the time. Now it's After School Matters who we continue to work with. In It was really a profound experience to be a teaching artist. And then 10, 15 years later, you know, I'm back for the last year of that in program building

a farm. Mhmm.

Built a farm. We had youth who farmed in that in that space. In We brought my my dad's material down that was so funky and smelly. It was just dense, amazing compost, but but urban ag style, so in So we actually could grow a ton of food in the small space, and then those youth were able to take that those that food and walk across the street to Daley Plaza and sell at the farmer's market in in a 6 week program. So that set the tone. And then I started just asking audacious questions. Like, in We have Grant Park, which is pretty famous, but it's all this green space that no one is, like, really using. Why can't we have a farm there? Why can't we continue this? In Then we can continue working with youth, and that opened up an opportunity for a contract, a subcontract to grow food in Using the existing landscaping ornamental budget to pave us the this emerging, like, office, in To farm that space as a landscape and then to also hire youth to farm that that landscape in in downtown Chicago.

And then that became then a policy shifting project or effort because we could prove and show that in Food production belongs in the the urban commons, and that it literally is the commons because we all share that space. And our youth in Who typically we had youth at that time that had never seen the lake, born and raised in Chicago. When I say youth, I mean, like, high school age, 14 to 17, 18, in Had never been downtown, and their first work experience was farming. These are black in Primarily black at that time. Some brown kids, but primarily black teens had never been down downtown Chicago. Not only were they downtown, they were working in in One of the most prominent visible spaces, landscapes across from Buckingham Fountain, beautiful, like, you know, architecture in Global architecture like museum of amazing buildings, growing food that our grandparents ate in And that our great great grand grand grandparents were enslaved and had and and survived because of this food. And now we're farming it free in North President's Court in Chicago, showing the world that food belongs in our cities. In That project is was called Art on the Farm.

So for me, it was profound. It still is. It's still existing, so listeners can come visit and see it. In It's like a stone's throw from the school of the art institute where I went to art school. So the full circle, the ability to kind of reclaim things in And then talk about it to respect what has come before, but also to continue to discover. Because through the work,

in People stop in their tracks

and tell you stories. We grew we started growing cardoons, and cardoons are a member of the artichoke family. They're a a thistle in Plant, but the cardigans are huge, and they're southern Italian, kinda Mediterranean, like, cultural food. You eat the ribs, And they're kinda like celery. They taste like artichoke. And they're just, like they look like just a dinosaur plant when they come in full, like, their fullness. People would stop. I'm just using that as one of the we we in that space, especially in the beginning, grew, like, 150 varieties of global in Cultural foods.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful things. Would tell just give us recipes and start talking about their grandparents and Mhmm. Recipe. It was just like in Yeah. You're trying to, like, you know, farm and make make sure things look good and, you know, work work with your youth, and people are just outpouring in all of these beautiful food narratives because food is in their community. And this is just people walking through. So the vision at that time was to prove that this belonged to to for it to be sustainable in and to redirect resources that were already in place to something that could add value on multiple levels. In And that to to to be at where we are now, we're actually doing that level of beauty and layered projects in multiple communities in that historically would not have had projects like that.

That would be reserved for downtown. So it's been an amazing arc of, in You know, building on on policy, exemplifying what we wanna see in our communities, engaging young people because they're we're already kind of in Working ourselves out of the narrative. Right? Like, that is something that everybody should be doing. It's thinking of 3 generations behind us and making sure they're prepared in Because it's growing. It takes seasons and seasons and years to learn how to do all of these things.

Beautiful. So let's do this in a moment. I wanna ask you a little bit more about something you're really good at, Erica, which is like the you're talking about policy shifts in engaging municipal leaders in a vision. I mean, a whole diverse set of leadership in a community to allow something like this to happen. So so I wanna ask you about that and also what it looks like now. But before we do that, I just wanna take a quick break. We're gonna hear a word from our sponsor. Are you facing 1 or more important decisions in your impact business? And you'd like an experienced thought partner to develop a plan about how to proceed in the complex times we're living, but you don't feel the need for an extended coaching or consulting contract that's gonna cost you many 1,000 of dollars.

You're looking for an affordable, targeted, and time efficient type of support. In Through paulzollizer.com, I offer a strategy session package. These packages are ideal for entrepreneurs who are facing 1 to 3 immediate decisions, like how to increase your positive impact, fine tune your marketing strategies to get more results for less effort, launch a new product or service successfully, or refine your pricing structure so it's both inclusive and provides you with a great quality of life. You can find out more by clicking below, and thank you so much for listening to this podcast. So welcome back, everybody. I am here with Eric Allen, and we are talking about community food and justice. And right before the break archive said, I think you know something that could be really, really value to our listeners, particularly those who wanna do things at scale in municipal and more urban environments. And that question was, You seem to be really good at engaging leaders of cities to, you know, allow to use the park to repurpose an ornamental landscape budget to grow food instead.

That that you're doing something really interesting there. So if there's a young person who has a lot of fire and there's a lot of desire to change, and they wanna learn from you. Like, how would what what are some of your top tips for engaging municipal leaders or or important leaders in an urban Chicago is a big city. Right? There's a lot of resources there, but it's also complicated, especially maybe if you don't look like the leaders that you're trying to have the conversations with. What what have you learned about that? What kind of suggestions would you have for somebody who's a little earlier on in their impact journey about how to do that effectively?

In I mean, I I think it's it's critical to have mentors, to find to find the people in the community that are doing what looks like you wanna do, who are farther along and really apprenticing with them. Like, I apprenticed with my father and the my team and all the folks that in Throughout the years, you've worked with me, for me, alongside me, mentored with elders who were farther along. That's how you learn what you wanna do, what you don't wanna do, what you wanna, like, improve, what you wanna let go of, and then you innovate. But that's just the just learning. You know, volunteering, WWOOFing, doing internships, the on ramp for connecting is is critical. In Those leaders also, if they're good leaders, they will welcome you, and they're gonna temper you. Like, you know, temper you in the sense of in really telling you the truth about the the work. There's a level of humility within food the food work and just farming in general.

You can have in all kinds of brilliant ideas, and one storm comes through and your dreams are crushed. And you have to be resilient and get back up in And think about what what could I what can I learn from that? And and and what what how can I apply that learning to the next time? Oh, maybe I could do this to do that. It takes a minute, in But you're able to do it kind of really quick, and that takes time. So I I just encourage that, and then I think training is really critical for that as well. As far as finding, like, alignment with politicos or, you know, kind of the advocates within a a community, I mean, I think it is Cities love to know what other cities are doing. So having precedent, being able to show and talk about what others have done is very helpful. But I always go back to make sure that you aren't I think it's just so important that that people aren't replicating things that are already in place, in because there's so much to do. I just think that is that's really important.

And seeing how depending on who we are, in Are we an ally? Are we inspired to do something to to to or fired up to to do something different in the community? In You know, are we innovating and investing in these ideas and these these these visions that our young people are in Taking on there's so many roles to play. I think it's really dependent on the kind of in Again, getting back to what is it that you are looking for within that within that narrative. Are you the emergent entrepreneur? Are you the, You know, a not for profit leader who is were is interested in passing along the knowledge to the next generation. In Are you a social venture person who wants to do a sustainable business but really wants to make a lot of money? In Like, all of those things, are you a worker coop innovator, which we're all thrilled and excited about the dimensions of social enterprise in and work our own cooperatives and what that looks like within a not for profit, for profit continuum as everything is continuing to evolve. In Now that we've proven that not only is urban agriculture critical for our mental health, our physical health, our reclamation of spaces, in remediation of spaces, but most importantly, within climate change, an opportunity to lessen our carbon mode in And our methane load that we're emitting into the environment. So there's so many dimensions, Paul.

In So give us a scale now. As I said, we're recording this in late 2023. It'll go live early 2024. Like, what's on the ground with urban like, literally on the ground with urban growers collective? Like, how many people are involved, like, how many pounds of food, what kind is it more annual veggies, or are we talking about, like, fruit crops or some of both? Like, just like literally if somebody went and just took some notes. Here's what I saw in 20 well, maybe not early 2024 because you're in Chicago in January. It might not be the same amount growing as in July. Right? But you know what I'm saying. During growing season, what would they see? In

During growing season, there's so much going on. So it's It's multiple sites. Right? In You're a you're a brilliant interviewer because you asked, like, 5 things and then one the one thing, and it's the way I talk, so it works really well. I in I mean, I I think that, you know, it's just a lot of folks preparing land, taking care of stewarding space, taking care of themselves, in Learning how to be balanced within the world. We're we go into winter work this time of the year, so we really reflect on what we did in Over the past year, and this past year was a lot of, like, you know, just sort of kind of level setting post pandemic, building our team, in Learning how to expand and grow without burning ourselves out, which is a tendency in to do, just in the work, because everybody's so passionate about herbalism, passionate about growing, passionate about in Did a community supported agriculture subscription box of, you know, of all of our produce and partnered with in A a new logistics partner who's from the community, Dion's dream, and offered a home delivery at a at a price that goes to that partner. In And our CSA subscription shot way up. And so that just by solving that issue. In So a lot of problem solving, a lot of recalibrating, and and using systems of accountability and training.

You know, training and and some people don't like in Training, but I'm old school. I I I embrace training, apprenticing within our system as we continue to learn and grow. In Just beautiful spaces full of food. We grew a lot of food this last year. Our youth had have developed their own spaces within the farm and are mimicking a lot of the things that adult growers are doing, which we've wanted to see for a long time. We expanded our orchard program in and received a grant from the Department of Forestry for the first time to do urban edible forests and to

in Build our literacy as an organization

around treekeeping be in the context of climate change, but also food security. In Green era, which is, you know, the kind of our future. So we have this urban ag kinda, you know, more traditional agriculture in the context of urban agriculture and then green era where we're taking in food waste and converting it in to back to compost by capturing methane to create and supply compressed natural gas just from in Capturing the methane that happens during that that die that breakdown, the decomposition process. So we're we're not emitting in that methane into the to the atmosphere at a municipal scale. You know? So we'll be processing, in You know, millions of pounds of food waste that normally would go into a landfill. And mitigating even large scale compost operations, in a release of methane because we can pull the methane before it goes to, you know, traditional composting and lessening that load in And having just enough material, which has always been a bottleneck in urban ag, we need fertility. You urban ag in And really any ag, but urban ag, all our soils are depleted. They are often contaminated.

We grow in compost. That's the that's the legacy of Growing Power. We learn that. We work with worms. We boost fertility and microbiology so that our food is not only in And we can grow a lot of more of it per square inch, but it's dense with nutrition because of what's in the soil. We know this. And so why not solve 10 problems at the same time? So that is the the maturity of the work, but we don't start people there because it is kinda mind blowing. We start off with a simple, like, this is how carbon and nitrogen, water and air break down matter.

And smell that smell, see that. In You know, there's

that process that when we start

gardening, we we begin to learn and understand and sort of the spirituality of the work. In And to take that into a larger scale on a campus where everybody can see it in a community that that in This is for Chicago. Well, I think maybe for the country. I got a little bit of competitive streak from my dad. So

in I think Chicago is not

a good legacy, but the birthplace of redlining was Chicago, which is a process of banks saying we're not gonna in provide loans to black folks in these areas. So one one of those communities that we work in and where Green Era is in is situated as Auburn Gresham. And to be able to have to use this project and this this concept as a in Catalyst for community wealth with our companion project, a community health center, the Healthy Hub with in with our partner, the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation, that sits on 79th Street, which is the most in used public transit. It's got the highest amount of, like, traffic from buses, and so it's just a major street, in A major historic commercial corridor to have that activated along with our project is, at a baseline, some of that transformation, in Starting with the garden, starting with youth, starting with visibility, starting with, you know, in Like, returning. Right? Like, I could've just done what we we were encouraged to do, which is go off and start your own thing. In but apprenticing and learning and contributing, you know, and then reconnecting that legacy. So now we have apprentices because we apprenticed. In So all of those things are coming together, and I could see it this year.

Like, I really this is the 1st year in 20. In I keep we keep playing 22 years, 23 years.

A lot of years.

Oh, life. Not my childhood because I grew up farming, but my adult life in of not actually physically doing the farming work. So a little puttering, a little harvesting, a little this, but in that I have turned those reins over. Does it mean I'm on a farm again? Absolutely. But you have to step away to let people Begin to develop. So it's a big year, and and there's we're on the precipice of a new Era, the green era of, you know, being able to now responsibly move into vertical farming because we have energy production in To be able to bring those skill sets and preparation for for climate change, to provide more food and the kinds of food people really want and need, and to continue our our legacy. So yeah. And piece de vis a stance in is that we were able to find way.

Chicago has a architecture biennial, and the curators of this year's biennial, Florida Museum, in chose us as a as a host site, and we're able to build an artist makerspace.

So Oh, cool.

Like, visual artist, in All really all disciplines, but visual and culinary artists, sonic artists, writers, in To be able to come and be on the farm and cocreate with us in the community and have that that the that space, to have that epiphany, to have that in connection to revive, but also be a vibrant part of of the of the landscape.

Very cool. So give us some idea of scale. If you added up the team that actually works for the 2 ventures, in urban growers collected and green air and volunteers, the number of you served, like like, just some idea of scale. If somebody's listening, they're like, this sounds awesome. Are we talking a 100 people or a 100,000? Right?

It's still not enough people. We have 27 folks on staff time. They run 8 farms and 5 5 or 6 programs. And Fresh Moves, I haven't talked about, which is our, Basically, our farm stand on wheels that goes to 13 different community sites. There's a team that does that. So I would say altogether, we have in Probably, like, like, in the summer up to about 40 40, 50 staff, full time, part time, and, in Volunteers, 5, 600 volunteers who are consistent during the year and and then a multitude of collective partners. You know? So in Customers, I think, what, in the last year, we served probably 30,000 folks just with fresh moves. So our numbers are tremendous, but We're not trying to be the biggest, baddest entity.

We do a lot because of the years of maturity, the years of doing the work that we do and continuing to engage and kind of pass along some of the things that we do in to others who are just emerging that we don't need to do anymore. So I think with adding those folks, it's probably, in You know? And I I numbers are weird with me, but, you know, probably another 2, 300 folks who are really actively leading this work within their communities, within their urban ag space. And it we affect millions of people. I feel like I No. No. No.

Everybody who walks by and sees your cardoon. Right?

Thousands of people who walk by, and they see it, and they have a I mean, how do you quantify that? In I know that we went from about 11, like, of measured, whether it's a a green or a tomato or a pumpkin. We went from, in I think £12,000 last year to over 25,000 Wow. Dates. So I just got those statistics in Yesterday, and I think our training within our apprentice programs, we have 2 years of cohorts within our herbalism program and our growers program.

In I believe we have about

40 40 folks who are engaged in that and about another 100 teens in our youth programs at 3 sites that we offer programs.

In So it's it's it's a lot of people we serve and

that and I still use that language. And I know it's not the most PC language, but in I feel like we are in service to the Earth and to each other and to community and in and and are building our and reclaiming that muscle in To be in service to one another, and, of course, with nature, with the earth, and being stewards of the land.

Ergood. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you. You mentioned it several times about climate change. I live as I said, I'm a passionate gardener. I live in downtown Albuquerque, Normally in New Mexico or at least in Central New Mexico, we might get a couple of days over a 100 degrees. Right? This past summer, We had two and a half weeks straight over a 100, got up to a 105, a 108, fried our gardens. Right? Like, we had like, Now things are still growing because it's been weirdly warm in the winter, but, like, literally, things are changing. And and as somebody who's been thinking about in urban agriculture you mentioned earlier, but I'll just highlight climate change is disproportionately affecting communities of color and poor communities.

So, like, as somebody who's been thinking about justice and food and community and you've talked about climate, How are you all thinking about that, and what is your ventures urban growers collective and in What's your the the various things you're doing, how are you thinking about climate change, and what would you suggest to listeners who are either already involved in the food for justice in base or wanna get involved in the how do we do this well given that the climate is changing? Any tips or suggestions?

In You know, I think just continuing to to dig deep into local, right, to, like, you know, plant trees, plant indigenous trees that, in You know, conserve our water. You know? And when you all, it's you know, it's it's something I think you do anyway. But really in Thinking about canopies. It's a big thing here in Chicago about building a tree canopy. I I, of course, like to put a spin on that and tree canopy and also edible Tree canopy because the more we can grow within our geosystems, within our local food sheds, the less impact on on miles, in Which, of course, impacts the environment. So just thinking about those loops, you know, circular economies, it's just good for everybody. It's less exploitive, but it's also an important strategy in climate resiliency. And in using that word resiliency, in Like, you know, can I reuse my water more than once? Can I all the things that, like, hippie folks have always done anyway, but now it's, like, monetizable? There's gonna be an economy around climate and around carbon.

And can I trade? Like, if you use more carbon than I do, you know, that's a exchange. In. So it's a real interesting opportunity to sort of globally create these spaces. Like, when you're growing if you're able to create,

in You're growing things and you're

able to balance that. You actually create a little microenvironment. We've seen that. And plants react, and they react for us before we do in So we can watch things through our plants. So having plant companions, which you are an inspiration, I actually have Expanded my my home. Even as much as I grow, just having plants around us that we steward and can't connect to is, I think, an important thing, and then being able to share that and bring that within our environments. I mean, we're doing green arrow. I mean, that's that is our climate in response and doing that in a way that we're also working in partnership with the plants in ways that we can track and understand, Because what's happening is inconsistency.

So it's too much rain and then not any, really hot and then cold. So these kinda start stops because the planet is trying to regulate itself just like some of us going through menopause.

In So it's just the same thing.

It's like, okay. I'm changing. What is I gotta regulate all these different things. So if you think of it like that in and how we can support that change by growing differently, using shade cloth, in You know, using some drip irrigation, because when it's hot like that, you gotta shade your plants. But learning those strategies rather than trying to, you know I mean, in We're so able to rely on the larger food system that we don't have to worry about surviving from that food, but really returning to indigenous food practices where that is our in And if I have excess, I can trade with you, but I need that food to survive. And I think if we take on more of that as a responsibility, in Regardless of our income level, that we're not only rebuilding community, we're being much more climate resilient, and we're really kind of like it's a crisis. In You know? And many of us are still behaving like it's not something for us to pay attention to, and that that needs to change.

And agree more. Erica, you're super busy and so are our listeners. So wanna let you go in just a minute. But final question, We'll pull links listeners to all as many of the resources. I've been writing them down, but there have been a lot. So as many as we can. Certainly to Green Era and Urban Growers Collective and some of your specific programs. Definitely go check out at the, delivery service, the, like, farmer's market on wheels that you all do.

Super cool. So we'll pull links to all that. If there was something you wanna leave our listeners with and we haven't touched on it yet. Or just, like, as you're saying goodbye and winding down this episode, keep in mind blank. What would that be?

In Right now, we're in the middle of our year end giving campaign, so please visit our website, and and anything helps us to continue our work.

There's a donate button, a section where somebody can go. Yeah.

And there's some really beautiful and you can sign up for our newsletters and just learn about all the things we're doing. We're also gonna be well, it'll be it'll it'll be January. Our kind of capital campaign for our some of the infrastructure at the campus where this where we'll be creating this green energy so that we can grow more food, in So we can train and support one another within, education center and and be able to have marketplace for folks to come and get the food that we're growing and to work with us and and be able to bring trees and plants back into their environments to grow food. So, really, that is activating in 24 and just invite everybody to track our in progress and participate and, come for a tour if you're in Chicago. Downtown Chicago, you can in walk through Grant Park and see Aaron the farm and all the all the many farms and projects here within our community of practice.

In Erica, thank you so much for being on the show today, and thank you for the incredibly important work that you do.

Thank you, Paul. Thanks for the invitation.

So listeners, let's do what we do. Go tell your friends. Let's amplify this great work. Check out the links below. And If you're in a position and you can make a donation or otherwise help out, please. This is a really important work very close to my home, my heart and my home. Literally, My garden is a 100 feet 100 feet from, my front door, and, it's so it is close to my home, but it's close to my heart. In Before we go, I just wanna remind you, we love listeners suggested topics and guests.

So if you have an idea for a show, go to the Awarepreneurs website. And on our contact page, we have ours three simple guidelines of what we're looking for. Please send us your ideas. And for now, I just wanna say thank you so much for listening. Please take really, really in good care in these intense times, and thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.

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