The community impact of the Chicago Botanic Garden can’t be overstated. The garden has ties with such programs as the Cook’s County Sheriff’s Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Center, and Windy City Harvest, a project that also includes a summer internship program for junior and high school students called Green Youth Farm. Windy City Harvest is an outreach program that offers hands-on training and experience in organic vegetable and plant growing for 15 to 20 adults each year who are interested in obtaining jobs in the “green industry.” Graduates of the course at Windy City Harvest receive a certificate in sustainable horticulture delivered by the Chicago Botanic Garden in partnership with Richard J. Daley College.
Windy City Harvest also provides local, healthy, and affordable food for community residents. Between 2009 and 2012, it produced 55,920 pounds of produce that was sold to wholesale suppliers like Midwest Foods, and it also contributed 26,158 pounds of produce through government-subsidized outlets like Women, Infant, and Children’s centers and at farmers’ markets that accept SNAP benefits and senior coupons. “Growing food is the scaffold that supports real training, the possibility of self-sufficiency, and the way forward for a more sustainable and community-centered local economy,” said Angela Mason, Director of Community Gardening for the Chicago Botanic Garden.
The largest production site of Windy City Harvest is located at the Rodeo Garden, an urban plot that covers nearly 2 acres. Over the course of a single season, the Rodeo Garden produces approximately 15,000 pounds of vegetables. It provides transitional jobs for graduates of Windy City Harvest as well as the young men who have completed their four-month residence at the Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Program. When baseball season is under way, food from this garden is shared with fans of the Chicago White Sox at Levy Restaurant, located in U.S. Cellular Field.
Along with organic urban farming methods, students learn essential business skills. After six months of hands-on instruction at Windy City Harvest, students spend three months in a paid internship before graduating. After they’ve completed their course, many graduates become employees of the Chicago Botanic Garden.