Chicago Heights ‘Z-farm’ helping Urban Growers Collective battle food insecurity

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (WLS) — Protecting the planet can start with the food you put on the table.

“Just thinking about how many miles it took for that tomato to come to your plate and all the energy that is consumed along the way for that tomato, that in the end, doesn’t really taste that good,” said Ericka Allen.

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Allen is the CEO of Urban Growers Collective. The Black and women-led nonprofit helps to provide locally-grown food to the South and West sides of the city, through its seven urban farms.

But UGC’s footprint just got a whole lot bigger after acquiring access to a 42-acre farm in south suburban Chicago Heights. About 30 of those acres are arable land, said Allen.

“This is a farm that we’re calling Z-farm, formerly the Zeldenrust Farm,” said Allen. “Now we can spread out here and grow so much more food and also create more food security, with food coming back into the city. So we’re not relying on having to ship food from across the country.”

One seed at a time, UGC will start growing everything from collard greens to pumpkins on just five of Z-farm’s acres for the first couple of years. The rest of the land will be covered with black-seeded sunflowers come harvest time.

And for the first time, they now have access to heated hoop houses.

“For us to have a little bit of heat means we can extend those tomatoes all the way through Christmas, all the way into the new year. That means that we can start peas in January,” said Allen.

UGC is also making sure future generations learn to grow their own food.

“We’re teaching, basic skills. Transplanting to seeding, to harvesting, and eventually going to sell it to the community,” said Urban Growers Collective Director of Farming Malcolm Evans.

Evans, a Chicago native, trains interns, staffers, and community members, some who don’t have easy access to grocery stores.

“A lot of these are food desert neighborhoods,” said Evans. “A lot of these communities don’t have access to healthy foods and don’t have food affordable to them so they have to travel miles away.”

But UGC is hoping to change that narrative.

“We’re encouraging everybody to join us to grow 10% of your own food, to purchase 10% of your own food, to make a positive impact on climate change, and just to have a more secure food shed.”

Even if that means getting a little extra help from a neighbor.

“If somebody’s growing a ton of zucchini down the street and they want to give you some zucchini, take that zucchini, make five things out of it. That’s food security,” said Allen.

Aspiring gardeners can stop by the Z-Farm’s onsite nursery every weekend to purchase seedlings to grow at home.

And come harvest time, people can drive up to the curbside farmstand to purchase vegetables.