About the Nonprofit
Visit Our Website
Mission Statement
Growing Home’s mission is to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic urban agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development.
Tagline Statement
We believe everyone deserves access to a good job and good food.
Purpose Statement
Growing Home is a nonprofit USDA-certified organic farm and workforce development center, serving the Greater Englewood community of Chicago through innovative paid employment training and nutritious, affordable produce.
Organizational Summaries
One Sentence (31 words):
Since 2002, Growing Home has been a nonprofit leader in urban agriculture, serving the Greater Englewood community in Chicago with their innovative paid employment training program and local, healthy food access.
Paragraph:
Growing Home works to ensure access to Good Jobs and Good Food on the South Side of Chicago through our innovative work in urban agriculture. We run a comprehensive, paid employment training program to help individuals with barriers to employment find and keep stable, full-time jobs. Through our USDA-certified organic farms, we provide healthy, fresh food and food education to our neighbors in Englewood.
Paragraph with Mission Statement:
Growing Home’s mission is to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic urban agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development. Our unique employment training program uses farming to teach transferable skills to individuals with barriers to employment, giving them the opportunity to secure full-time, stable jobs. Through our USDA-certified organic farms, we also provide healthy, fresh food and food education to our neighbors in Englewood.
Medium - Food Access primary focus
At Growing Home, we believe that everyone deserves a good job, to eat well, and to live in a vibrant, supported community. We are a non-profit urban farm and social enterprise using urban agriculture as a vehicle for food justice and employment access equity on the South Side of Chicago.
Every year through our USDA-certified organic farm, we provide 17,500 individual servings of affordable and donated healthy food. Our Food Access programs include: weekly markets at discounted prices, no-cost weekly Family Boxes, bulk sale to mission-driven partners, and pop-up events and donations. Through cooking demonstrations, farm tours and community outreach, we share and uplift ways to integrate nutritious choices into our daily lifestyles that are culturally relevant and inspiring.
Our farms also host our evidence-based, paid workforce development program that enrolls 80 individuals annually, many of whom face unjust structural barriers to employment, like criminal records or housing instability. To date, we have empowered over 500 individuals with the tools, connections, and confidence to find and keep stable jobs, providing a path towards self-sufficiency.
Long - Includes Mission Statement
Growing Home’s mission is to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic urban agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development. Since 2006, we have focused our work on Chicago’s South Side in the Greater Englewood community. Our USDA-certified organic farms serve as the foundation for our innovative employment training program, and produce 35,000+ pounds of vegetables and herbs annually.
At Growing Home, we believe that farming is a unique and powerful vehicle to teach hard, transferable job skills, while also providing a therapeutic experience to individuals who are looking for personal growth and connection. Our unique, paid workforce development program aims to increase employment opportunities for individuals with extreme barriers to employment. To date, we have empowered over 500 individuals with the tools, connections, and confidence to find and keep stable jobs, providing a path towards self-sufficiency.
Through our farms and programs, we provide affordable, healthy food and food education to our neighbors in Englewood. We grow over 200 varieties of vegetables, which we sell at affordable prices at our weekly Wood Street Farm Stand and other local markets. Through cooking demonstrations, farm tours and events, and community outreach, we share engaging ways to integrate nutritious choices into our daily lifestyles with our customers and participants.
Very Long - Includes Vision Statement
At Growing Home, we believe that everyone deserves a good job, to eat well, and to live in a vibrant, supported community. We are a non-profit organic farm and social enterprise focused on using urban agriculture as a vehicle for workforce development and food access in our Englewood community of Chicago.
Our innovative workforce development programs aim to increase employment opportunities for individuals with justice involvement, low education, lack of work history, and other extreme barriers to workforce entry. Each year we enroll approximately 80 individuals seeking to gain job skills and secure long-term employment. Through hands-on field work, classroom training, and individualized case management, our paid 12-week program provides the tools, skills, and support participants need to find and keep good jobs. We also have additional programs including apprenticeship partnerships with local city colleges and a Neighborhood Computer and Job Resource Center.
As well as a training space, our farms are an access point for affordable, healthy food and food education to our neighbors in Englewood. We grow over 200 varieties of vegetables, which we sell at affordable prices at our weekly Wood Street Farm Stand and other pop-up markets. In 2020, we began a neighborhood food box delivery program at no cost to Englewood residents. Through cooking demonstrations, farm tours and events, and community outreach, we share with our customers and their families how to integrate nutritious choices into our daily lives.
Since 2006, we have focused our work on the city’s South Side in Englewood, a community that has been greatly impacted by systemic racism and disinvestment. Our Englewood community faces a 35% unemployment rate and 1 in 3 residents are facing food insecurity. Growing Home is helping to redefine local, sustainable food systems as we operate Chicago's first and only high-production, USDA-certified organic farms.
Press Release Boilerplate
For over 20 years, Growing Home has been a nonprofit leader in urban agriculture, serving the Greater Englewood community in Chicago with our innovative paid workforce development programs and local, nutritious food. We run the first and only USDA-Certified organic high production urban farms in Chicago.
Our produce can be found at our farm stand and at farmers markets throughout the city. To learn more and get involved, please visit growinghomeinc.org.