1. Turnips, carrots, and a prescription for a healthier life with Veggie Rx

If you had asked Jeffrey Williams three years ago if he likes beets, squash, or turnips, he probably would have laughed. Now, the North Lawndale resident has a new love for veggies. 

“The stuff’s not bad. It just grew on me,” he said.

Williams participates in Veggie Rx, a program that offers free vegetables and nutrition training to help patients with diet-related diseases who are also food insecure. Veggie Rx is a partnership among the Chicago Botanic Garden, Lawndale Christian Health Center, and the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion, and is headquartered at the Farm on Ogden in North Lawndale.

Williams goes to the Veggie Rx program at the Farm on Ogden every Wednesday. He picks up a bag filled with fresh vegetables grown and packed by trainees in the Garden’s Windy City Harvest program. He also receives food coupons and learns how to prepare the vegetables. 

“Everything in the veggie bag gets dealt with,” he said. “I’m hooked on ’em.”

The 53-year-old said he was struggling with high blood pressure, kidney disease, and acid reflux. His doctor at Lawndale Christian wrote him a prescription for Veggie Rx. That was three years ago. Since then, Williams said most of these issues have subsided, a fact he credits to Veggie Rx.

“I make better choices,” Williams said. “I have a lot more energy. You always notice a difference when you make a positive change.”

Williams is a retired machine operator originally from Louisiana. His father was a farmer, and at dinner, the younger Williams would try to sneak the vegetables off his plate. His father would say “You can’t leave the table without eating your vegetables!”

Now, one of Williams’s favorite things to make is lentil soup with peppers, carrots, and kale. “It’s heavy, lasts longer, and I feel better,” he said. He also doesn’t go out to eat as much or eat heavy portions. His girlfriend—a nurse who is diabetic—has started to look forward to the produce bags Williams brings home, too.

Williams also visits the Farm on Ogden retail store for half-price produce on weekends. Carrots are one of his favorites. 

“I feel blessed that the Farm on Ogden is here,” he said.

2. Sharing Windy City Harvest’s goal to build healthy communities

“The workshop offered more practical advice and tools than I thought possible.” 

That was just one participant’s take on the three-day training in urban agriculture offered this summer by Windy City Harvest.

More than a dozen urban agriculture leaders from throughout the country came to the Chicago Botanic Garden for the program sponsored by the U.S. Botanic Garden. Windy City Harvest will lead several others too, all with the same goal: share the model and best practices of Windy City Harvest with organizations that see urban agriculture as a way to improve communities. 

The Windy City Harvest team shared program outlines, advice, and even honesty about the sometimes bumpy process of building successful programs in urban areas.  

“I really appreciated seeing the pathway that led to the existing Windy City Harvest programs,” one participant said. “As an organization that is new to urban agriculture, it was reassuring to see that something great can grow from a small initiative.”

There were sessions on partnerships, food safety and distribution, and jobs training, and visits to the Farm on Ogden and several farm sites. The leaders from Colorado, Georgia, Utah, and beyond came armed with questions: How is the program funded? What is the relationship of our farms with the city of Chicago? How do you work with funders?

They left seeing the possibilities for their own programs. “I am inspired by the system and culture you all have created around food. Hearing from participants was amazing and very genuine. Baton Rouge needs this, and I am so inspired to create this type of food culture in our own Baton Rouge way.”

3. Offering training in sustainable urban agriculture

In 2019, Windy City Harvest launched a three-day intensive program, held at the Farm on Ogden with its 52,000-gallon aquaponics system, on how to build an aquaponics food production system on a commercial scale. 

It is just one of the workshops and certificate courses where students can learn new skills or further their career.