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Urban Agriculture Funds Awarded

Advocates for Urban Agriculture (AUA), in partnership with Food:Land:Opportunity, has awarded 2021 Capacity Building grants to Obodo Farms, La Villita Park Community Farm, Cicero Community Farm, Growing Solutions Farm, Sistas In The Village, Reclaiming Our Roots, Ever Favor Farms, Global Garden Refugee Training Farm, Sunflower Soule Farm, City Farm Chicago and Hinata Farm.

This is a continuation of the series of grant opportunities AUA launched at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, AUA awarded more than $200,000 in grant funds to more than 80 Chicagoland growing operations via the COVID-19 Farmer Support Grant and the first round of the Capacity Building Grant, which continues to support urban farm businesses working to expand, scale up their operations and work toward sustainability.

Guidelines address small operations (less than five acres and/or have an operating budget of less than $250,000); owned and/or led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color, trans, non-binary and/or gender non-conforming people; and providing food and other services for low-income communities.

Grants range between $2,500 and $20,000, with applications reviewed by a group of food systems educators, growers and advocates; including Jesse Schaffer of The Talking Farm; Gina Roxas of Trickster Cultural Center; Azizah Ali-Ashraf of A&P Paradise Farm; Erin Kwiatkowski of a national nonprofit; Nora Bryne of a nonprofit health center; and Erana Jackson Taylor of Ujamaa Co-op.

 

For more information, visit auaChicago.org.