Good Food for All

Weekly Digest: Food Oases, Southern Illinois Farmer Network and Updated Grants Database

This week's Good Food for All digest is cross-posted on ChicagoReGen.com. 

• Food Works is launching a Southern Illinois Farmer Network to support local and sustainable food systems. Learn more.

• Walgreens has restructured some of its stores in Chicago to offer healthier food options and attempt to create “food oases” in response to the food-desert challenge.

• Illinois Environmental Protection Agency outlined changes to improve regulations on large livestock farms, also known as CAFOs.

• An updated grants database on local food systems is now available for nonprofits, researchers and government agencies, as well as producers, farmers and entrepreneurs on Good Food for All.

• Help National Good Food Network locate your food hub.  To learn more about food hubs, click here.

 

Daily Digest: FoodCorps Seeking Host Organizations, USDA Healthy Incentives Pilot and Shared-Use Kitchen Update

Kitchen Chicago has a useful overview of the City's shared-use kitchen draft ordinance. Read the key points here. 

FoodCorps, a new AmeriCorps program that will support school gardens and Farm to School programs, is seeking host sites for its program.  Deadline for LOIs is Sept. 17. 

A Northbrook resident started growing vegetables in his front yard, sparking a debate about the use of lawns. 

USDA launched its Healthy Incentives Pilot in Massachusetts and a Peoples Garden School Pilot Program nationwide. Applications for the school pilot program are due Nov. 8. 

NYTimes and LATimes weigh in on the impact of industrialized agriculture on public health, in light of the recent salmonella outbreak from egg farms in Iowa. 

A potential model for Illinois? CNN covers the "Veggie Rx" program in Massachusetts, a program of the Wholesome Wave Foundation. 

Daily Digest: Go for the Gold Campaign and LINK at Chicago Farmers Markets

Chicago Public Schools and Healthy Schools Campaign officially launched the Go for the Gold Campaign, in partnership with USDA Midwest, as part of the HealthierUS Schools initiative to promote healthier school environments.

Food & Water Watch has produced a blueprint for a healthy food system, in preparation for the reauthorization of the Farm Bill in 2012.

Walgreens is converting some of its Chicago stores into full-service grocery stores.

Fed Up with School Lunch, a blog written by a teacher in Illinois who is eating school lunch for a year, volunteered at Common Threads summer camp at Kennedy-King College in Englewood.  Read her post(s) here.

City governments are growing food for local food pantries from Madison to Des Moines.

Check out the updated Jobs and Opportunities page at Good Food for All.

LINK cards are currently accepted at five Chicago farmers markets.  Groundswell Films produced this short video below on the LINK program. Read more about The Experimental Station, which began the pilot program this year.

Daily Digest: FoodCorps, Farmers Markets, and Food Truck Legislation

FoodCorps is in the planning stages for developing an AmeriCorps School Garden and Farm to School program.  If you would like to participate in a working group, you can fill out this survey. 

Food truck legislation was delayed until further notice at the Chicago City Council meeting this week. 

To promote farmers markets across the country, American Farmland Trust is sponsoring its annual "America's Favorite Farmers Markets" contest.  Vote here! 

The USDA Food Environment Atlas is an excellent tool for food security and food access data. 

Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign, IL will receive a USDA Value-Added Producer Grant to conduct a feasibility study and create a business plan "for an on-farm, goat-milk-to-gelato operation."  Click here to see what other Chicago foodshed farm enterprises will receive funding.  

Good Food for All has an updated listing of jobs and opportunities in the Chicago foodshed, as well as links to other useful websites. 

Daily Digest: UIC Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative Announces Opportunities for Seven Communities

UIC Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) plans to launch the ChiWest ResourceNet (CWRN), a targeted capacity building initiative for seven Chicago communities.  A Bidders Conference will take place on Feb. 16, 2010.  Click here to read the full RFP.  

The Atlantic investigates Walmart's Heritage Agriculture program and its commitment to sourcing local and organic foods. 

Read more about the background of Let's Move, which will include collaboration with government departments and forming partnerships with both the private and non-profit sectors.  

Funds are available for current and transitioning organic farmers. Sign-up is open until March 12, 2010. 

Logan Square Kitchen, a sustainable kitchen and event space, will host a Pastry Market this Saturday, Feb. 13. 

To watch a re-cap of the Slow Food Chicago Annual Meeting, you can watch the video here. 

Slow Food Chicago's 2010 Annual Meeting from Ryan Kimura on Vimeo.

Link to: 

Sustainable Food Jobs & Opportunities

Daily Digest: Niche Meat Producers, Chicago Food Policy Summit Sessions and School Lunch Reform

Submit a proposal for a session at the Chicago Food Policy Summit, March 11-13, 2010. Proposals are due Jan. 22.  Download RFP for CFPAC 2010 Summit Sessions. 

USDA announced $25 million in grants will be available for schools to purchase new cafeteria kitchen equipment. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that obesity rates are starting to plateau. 

Growing Home is seeking farm assistants. Click here to download the job descriptions. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a RFP for the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) grant program.  Info sessions, application details, and community profiles are available here. 

How do mobile slaughter units actually work? Watch these videos to find out.  Below is Part 1. 

Daily Digest: Shifting Ground, Slow Food in Indianapolis, and Beef Processing

An updated grant database is available on Good Food for All's Grants Page. 

To protect her farm, a woman in Michigan wants to turn her land into an eco-friendly cemetery after she dies.  

Restaurant Opportunities Center in Chicago and workers at a local Andersonville restaurant won a victory to receive back wages. 

Civil Eats did a 2009 re-cap of its most popular stories. Among them included a post on the growing food movement in Indianapolis. 

USA TODAY continues the debate on food safety and USDA. The New York Times also has an article on the safety of beef processing. 

Happy New Year! 

Daily Digest: Illinois Environmental Heroes, Sustainable Food Stories,

Governor Quinn announced the 2009 Illinois Environmental Heroes.  Among them include local food leaders Debbie Hillman, Garry Griffith, Dinah Ramirez, and Michael Howard.  

Food safety in school lunches could become an integral part of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act set for March 2010. 

Download the 2010 Project Orange Thumb garden grant application. Twenty-two grant recipients in the U.S. and Canada will receive $1000 worth of tools and more.  Deadline is Feb. 19, 2010. 

Change.org highlights the top 5 sustainable food stories this year: The White House Garden, food safety and health care, farmers markets, web portals for local food, and urban farming.  Below is a USDA chart showing the increase in the number of farmers markets over the past fifteen years. 

 

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Daily Digest: Hoop Houses, Grants, and National Young Farmer Coalition

A National Young Farmer Coalition is emerging, as an offshoot of the Greenhorns project. 

Small and urban farmers can apply for three-year hoop house (high tunnel) grants through the USDA.  Deadline is Jan. 15, 2010.  USDA Service Centers can provide more information.  Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are all eligible. 

Urban farming could become part of Detroit's long-term development plans. 

Researchers at University of Chicago are looking for Midwest farms to participate in a study on "Energy Use and Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Small-Scale, Diversified Farms throughout the Midwest in 2010."  For more information, contact Esther Bowen, Program Coordinator and Graduate Student Researcher at eebowen@uchicago.edu, or Assistant Professor Pamela Martin, Principal Investigator at pmartin@uchicago.edu. 

Daily Digest: Friends of Slow Money, Family farms, and Ground Beef Recall

   

For one week, Friends of Slow Money is raising funds to support local food systems.  Join the Slow Money Alliance by giving $5 or more here. 

 The New York Times takes an in-depth look at a ground beef recall and the effects of E.coli contamination. 

School districts in Illinois are reporting a large increase in free lunch waivers. 

AP reports that more Americans are growing food on 'hobby' farms.  For family farms though, income levels have decreased due to lower crop and livestock prices. 

USDA announced its grant opportunities for socially disadvantaged, small producers.