Chicago Avenue has been the site for a community garden in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood since 2003, where Chicago Lights Academic Success in Schools bases its work. It became an Urban Farm in 2010 through an expanded relationship between Chicago Lights and Growing Power --a nonprofit organization empowering communities by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high quality, safe, and affordable food.

The Urban Farm provides job training and youth development so that youth may gain knowledge about life skills and job readiness, as well as agriculture. Families learn about nutrition and healthy cooking, and have access to affordable, organic produce. Relationships in the community grow as people of diverse backgrounds work side by side and enjoy community celebrations together.

Garden plots are available to neighborhood residents who live within a five block radius of the farm. There are plenty of ways volunteers who live beyond this radius can help plants and relationships grow at the Urban Farm.

For information about allotment gardening, click here.

In June 2011, Impact 100 awarded a special grant to Chicago Lights to expand programming at our Urban Farm. To read the press release announcing Impact 100 Chicago's $100,000 grant to the Chicago Lights Urban Farm to build a hard-shell green house, click here.

To watch a special video about the grant, click here.