Liberty Prairie was awarded a Food:Land: Opportunity grant toward the expansion of the Liberty Prairie Farm Store this summer. The grant recognized our “innovative work promoting the growth of the local food system.” We are grateful for the kind acknowledgment and couldn’t wait to get to work!
In the words of our grantors, “Localizing the Chicago Foodshed is a multi-year initiative that aims to create a resilient local food economy that protects and conserves land and other natural resources while promoting market innovation and building wealth and assets in the Chicago region’s communities.”
The grant was funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust. Food:Land: Opportunity is a collaboration between the Kinship Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust.
This grant provides us the opportunity to expand the shopping and display spaces, including refrigeration, allowing us to feature more farms and food entrepreneurs in the Farm Store.
Additionally, sharing this story of local food, local farmers, and access to healthy food happens naturally in the store. The grant helps us increase communications that tell the story of our food producers and holistically increase awareness of the local food system.
Finally, the grant helps us better reach out and serve those with WIC and SNAP benefits. We will ensure they know they are welcome and feel supported at the Farm Store while shopping for healthy, local food.
We believe this work provides an important year-round market to farmers and food entrepreneurs, while increasing access to local foods for local eaters.
The Farm Store reopens tomorrow (Wednesday) after construction.
In the coming weeks, we will continue this project. We will also take time to celebrate the Farm Store’s one year anniversary this November. We hope you’ll join us!
Your farmers and Farm Store team,
Jeff, Jen, Gavin, Miguel, Anacleto, Cleto, David and the Liberty Prairie team