Remote Garden
Subject: Abandoned American Indian Center (AIC) Food is Medicine Project Remote Garden
Opened: Scheduled opening Spring 2023
Location: Chicago, IL (Jefferson Park)
Cost: $1,006,755 (total grant funding)
Abandoned by: American Indian Center of Chicago (AIC)
Date: 07/22/2023
Camera: Canon S110
Comments
- The American Indian Center of Chicago abandoned the remote garden project and never developed the site.
- Open Access Food Garden developed by Girl Scout Troop 20270 and supported by the Rainbow Troop.
- “The grant award of $1,006,755 distributed over the next three years comes from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) federal agency through its Social and Economic Development Strategies program.” – American Indian Center of Chicago Website
- “Through the Food is Medicine project, AIC partners with Great Lakes tribal growers to distribute Indigenous food boxes to Native families and elders. AIC will also increase access to fresh, healthy Indigenous foods by creating a rooftop garden at AIC and a community garden at Jefferson Park.” – American Indian Center of Chicago Website
- “Girl Scouts Plant! by Girl Scout Troop 20270: Scout troop will build raised beds for perennial plants and native plants for the community.” – Announcing 2023 Garden for Nature Grantees, Wild Ones
Articles
American Indian Center of Chicago Receives Three-Year Grant for Indigenous Food Sovereignty Project
American Indian Center Receives $1 Million Grant for Food Sovereignty Project
Quote
“CHICAGO—Just in time for Native American Heritage Month, the American Indian Center (AIC) has received a federal grant of over $1 million for its Indigenous food sovereignty project. The grant award of $1,006,755 distributed over the next three years comes from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) federal agency through its Social and Economic Development Strategies program.
The grant will fund AIC’s Food is Medicine project, whose goal is to achieve Indigenous food sovereignty for the Native American community in the Chicago metropolitan region. The project will increase access to fresh, healthy traditional Native foods and practices that honor Indigenous relationships to food.
Melodi Serna (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa/Oneida Nation), AIC Executive Director, says: “AIC has always responded to the needs of the community. Over the last two years of the pandemic, AIC distributed hundreds of food boxes and hot meals to the community. However, these contained mostly commodity food items, and community members expressed interest in accessing traditional Indigenous foods more beneficial to their health. This grant will allow us to expand our Food is Medicine program greatly, and impact many more community members.”
Chantay Moore (Navajo Nation), AIC Board Chair, states: “AIC is pleased to receive this funding for our Food is Medicine program. The grant will help AIC to support community members in decolonizing our diets and accessing fresh, nutrient-dense, whole foods that have nourished us for centuries, as well as reconnecting to traditional methods of cooking and other practices that honor ancestral ways of relating to food as a gift from the Creator. Because the majority of Native people in the U.S. now live in cities, it is critical to explore what food sovereignty looks like in urban areas for diverse, intertribal communities such as ours.”
A recent survey of Native American community members in the Chicago region conducted by AIC found that 88 percent of respondents had little to no access to fresh, healthy, traditional Indigenous foods.
Through the Food is Medicine project, AIC partners with Great Lakes tribal growers to distribute Indigenous food boxes to Native families and elders. AIC will also increase access to fresh, healthy Indigenous foods by creating a rooftop garden at AIC and a community garden at Jefferson Park.
AIC will also empower community members to grow and cook Indigenous foods through Indigenous cooking workshops, Indigenous gardening workshops, and field trips to tribes and growers following Great Lakes seasonal rounds in harvesting, gathering, hunting, and other ancestral practices.” – American Indian Center of Chicago Receives Three-Year Grant for Indigenous Food Sovereignty Project, American Indian Center of Chicago
Photographs
Screenshot
Creative Commons License
This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
