Growing More Than Food: How Urban Growers Collective Is Feeding Chicago’s Future

On the South Side of Chicago, something powerful is growing. Not just vegetables. Not just herbs. But opportunity. Healing. Ownership. And community.

The Urban Growers Collective is doing something many organizations talk about—but few actually execute at scale. They are building a community-based food system designed by and for the people who live here.

More Than Farming—This Is About Community

At its core, Urban Growers Collective is rooted in a simple but powerful mission: to create environments that support health, economic development, healing, and creativity through urban agriculture.

But what does that really look like on the ground? It looks like:

• Farms growing fresh food in neighborhoods that need it most
  
  
• Young people learning how to grow, sell, and understand food
  
  
• Residents gaining access to healthy produce without leaving their community

This isn’t just about access—it’s about ownership and control of the food system.

Built by the Community, For the Community

Founded in 2017 by Erika Allen and partners, Urban Growers Collective is a Black- and women-led nonprofit working to address long-standing inequities in how food is grown, distributed, and accessed. And they’re not doing it in theory—they’re doing it in real time.

• 8 urban farms across Chicago
  
  
• A 30-acre farm in Chicago Heights
  
  
• Partnerships like the Green Era Campus in Auburn Gresham

Together, these spaces produce tens of thousands of pounds of fresh food each year and bring it directly into the community.

Let’s be honest. Many South and West Side neighborhoods have been labeled “food deserts” for years. That’s a polite way of saying fresh, healthy food hasn’t always been accessible. Urban Growers Collective steps into that gap by not only growing food—but by changing the system that created the gap in the first place. Their work directly addresses:

• Food insecurity
  
  
• Lack of access to fresh produce
  
  
• Economic disinvestment
  
  
• Structural inequities in the food system

And they do it with a mindset that goes beyond charity. This is about long-term sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Creating Jobs, Skills, and Ownership

One of the most powerful parts of this work is what happens beyond the harvest. Urban Growers Collective trains people to:

• Become urban farmers
  
  
• Build cooperative businesses
  
  
• Develop skills in agriculture and sustainability
  

Programs like their Grower Apprenticeship provide hands-on training and pathways to economic opportunity. That means the impact doesn’t stop at food—it extends to careers, income, and entrepreneurship.

Taking Food Directly to the People

Access matters. And transportation matters. That’s why Urban Growers Collective created solutions like:

• Farmers markets
  
  
• Community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs
  
  
• Mobile markets that bring fresh food into neighborhoods
  

They are literally meeting people where they are. Because access to healthy food shouldn’t depend on your zip code.

What makes this work special isn’t just the farms—it’s the intention behind them. Urban Growers Collective is helping communities:

• Reconnect with land
  
  
• Rebuild local economies
  
  
• Heal from generations of disinvestment
  
  
• Create something sustainable for the future

Chicago has always been a city of innovation—especially within Black communities. From music to business to culture, we’ve found ways to create something out of what we had. Urban Growers Collective continues that tradition. They are showing what it looks like when a community says: “We will grow what we need. We will build what we need. And we will take care of our own.”

Check out their website and their workshops. The first workshop is the Spring Grower Workshop, Sat, Mar 28 • 10:00 AM, South Chicago Farm