Online Program

Panel Discussion

What policies make for a healthy community? How can or should they intersect, recognizing the multitude of environmental, social and food systems and factors that affect health, and that together comprise a community? Chicago is known for its parks, boulevards, and green spaces. Unfortunately, these spaces are not always equally available to all socioeconomic groups. Under a Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the City of Chicago and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) developed a citywide plan called Recipe for Healthy Places to maximize the utilization of these open spaces, not only for physical activity, but also to strengthen communities, provide jobs, and produce healthy, fresh food. This session will discuss the ongoing efforts between the City of Chicago and its community partners to implement the plan’s recommendations to deliberately link community planning goals with increased food access. Bradley Roback, from Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, will provide an overview of the City’s recent policies to incorporate health and food related issues into local land use planning projects. Examples will include repurposing vacant land into recreational facilities and urban agriculture districts in Englewood, West Englewood and Washington Park. Growing Home, has been helping people find meaningful careers through farming since 2002. As an urban farm and job training organization, Growing Home trained over 40 Englewood residents in 2014, 79% of whom found jobs in Chicago’s food sector. Executive Director Harry Rhodes will discuss the development of their farms in West Englewood and the successes and challenges it faces serving the Englewood community. Finally, Emmanuel Pratt, Executive Director of the Sweetwater Foundation talks about his organization’s work to integrate the arts, design and urban food production in Washington Park, and its impact on the surrounding neighborhood. Few reliable and consistent measures currently exist to assess the true impact of urban gardens and farms. This gap will be discussed in the context of these two farming initiatives, and will include innovative ways to turn qualitative data into reliable outcomes of community impact.

Session Objectives: 1. Summarize the City of Chicago’s recent policy changes to incorporate health and food into local land use planning. 2. Discuss the impact of City of Chicago food policy changes on surrounding communities. 3. Describe some of Chicago’s community-based efforts to revitalize neighborhoods through urban farming and community development. 4. Discuss the potential impact of planned open spaces, urban farms, and other productive landscapes on health indicators in underserved urban communities, using examples from Chicago neighborhoods.