Maxwell Street Community Garden was started in 2012 by neighbors from a diverse community on the near west side of Chicago. Their mission was to include all community members to not only grow food, but to get to know one another and create a safer, healthier neighborhood. The Garden was built on 10-city lots of vacant land owned by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). Each year, the allotment and ornamental garden added more plots and other amenities: a shade structure, children’s garden, stage to host musical bands, and annual and perennial flowers to beautify the neighborhood.
In 2018, the Garden’s Board was notified by CHA that the land occupied by the garden was being sold. That fall, planning began to relocate the garden across the street to a nearby site designated as permanent green space in the CHA Plan for Transformation for Roosevelt Square. Funds were secured from grants and donations to move the garden.
In spring 2019, over 50 volunteers spent two weekends moving over 100 cubic yards of wood chips (about 1000 wheelbarrows), built 60 raised garden boxes and began to move the many perennials to their new home around the border of the garden. A shed raising and grand opening occurred in early summer. The garden’s Annual Harvest Fest was held in September with food, music, and educational activities to celebrate the new garden.
In 2020, despite the pandemic, the garden provided a safe, socially distanced environment for outdoor activities for everyone in the neighborhood. The garden has 15% of its 60 plots reserved for use by CHA residents or to grow food to share with the community. The garden serves over 80 households each year.
Maxwell Street Community garden strives to address multiple needs of the community by:
- Promoting healthy eating by providing 60 raised beds to grow fresh organic produce. 20% of the plots produce food for the Community. The garden provides opportunities for outdoor activity in a densely populated area, such as yoga, gardening/farm-to-table education, beekeeping, butterfly breeding, public art, and community activities like pumpkin painting, Harvest Festivals, etc.
- Beautifying and preserving open space, reducing waste and addressing environmental education by promoting organic gardening practices such as insect control and composting. Perennial flower gardens are also tended for neighborhood beautification and pollination.
- Building stronger communities: The garden is located in a diverse community on the near west side of Chicago. Most of the garden’s members live in one of three unique neighborhoods surrounding the garden: the Chicago Housing Authority ABLA Home development and adjacent Roosevelt Square mixed income properties; University Village, a newer, residential area near the University of Illinois; and Pilsen, a traditionally Latino neighborhood experiencing gentrification. The garden provides a unique opportunity for individuals and families from these racially, culturally and socioeconomically diverse surrounding communities to connect and be a part of a meaningful effort.
The overall goal is the utilization of the community garden to involve our community in growing fresh produce for healthy eating, with the following objectives:
- Maintain high utilization of community garden plots: 20% of 61 raised garden plots produce food for the Community. The remaining 49 are farmed by private individuals who grow vegetables for their families and also contribute to the weekly free community farmstand. The Garden Board maintains a list of current plot assignments and gardener involvement by volunteer hours completed. Each plot is required to complete 10 hours of grounds maintenance and other tasks and 8 watering shifts. Board members visually check the state of the beds to ensure gardeners are following best practices such as weeding and keeping ripening produce picked.
- Engage community members: The garden offers free volunteer-only memberships for any community members interested in participating at any level. The Board maintains a waitlist of interested gardeners to track community interest. The Garden regularly has community members who stop in to volunteer to weed or help with garden events. The Garden hosts regular programming of interest to gardeners and community members.