Chicago’s Community Growers Program Round 2 Application is Open- 5/1/2024!

The Community Growers Program Application is now open through June 30th at 11:59pm! The Community Growers Program provides infrastructure and technical assistance, intended to support long term (5+ years) and larger scale growing spaces run by growers with roots and relationships in the Chicago neighborhood they are growing in.

If you would like to preview the application in a word document, please refer to this document. Please do not fill out this document, it is intended only for you to preview the questions you will answer in the form below. To use the above document as an editable draft, make a copy of it, as the link is not editable to make sure everyone can see the same language.

Apply here! https://forms.gle/yrKzhiBe2ncZYpgv8

Chicago’s Community Growers Program is currently working to steward forward urban agriculture projects with the current round one 18 awardees listed here.

Please note: the Community Growers Program is a separate opportunity than the Urban Agriculture Land Opportunity, and while we encourage you to apply for both opportunities if you have the capacity to robustly grow, need land, and need resources, the two programs are separate. Currently, there are no new Urban Ag Land Opportunities. There may be a new round on ChiBlockBuilder in fall of 2024.

For background on this project, please visit- https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/bacp-recovery-plan/home/community-growers-food-equity.html

This project is specifically for growers in communities that have traditionally experienced barriers and have had disinvestment. The Community Growers Project is specifically intended for projects that:

  1. have experienced growers as leads,
  2. prioritizes growing edibles, and
  3. is based in and for community members on the South, Southwest, and West Sides of Chicago.

Specifically, the neighborhoods include:

Albany Park, Lower West Side, Archer Heights, McKinley Park, Avalon Park, Montclare, Belmont Cragin, Morgan Park, Bridgeport, North Park, Brighton Park, O’Hare, Calumet Heights, Pullman, Clearing, Rogers Park, East Side, Roseland, Edgewater, Uptown, Gage Park, Washington Heights, Hegewisch, West Elsdon, Hermosa, West Lawn, Hyde Park, West Pullman, Kenwood, and West Ridge

Armour Square, New City, Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, Austin, Oakland, Burnside, Riverdale, Chatham, South Chicago, Chicago Lawn, South Deering, Douglas, South Lawndale, East Garfield Park, South Shore, Englewood, Washington Park, Fuller Park, West Englewood, Grand Boulevard, West Garfield Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn, and Humboldt Park

This project is an outcome of the 2022 Food Equity Council. See information about the history of this project here.

The Community Grower’s Program is a collaborative urban agriculture project that supports development and implementation of 25-30 urban agriculture new and existing sites by providing access to land, and financial and technical assistance to urban growers.

PROJECT PARTNERS OF THIS PROGRAM INCLUDE: