FAQ - General

What is Growing Home’s mission?

Growing Home’s mission is to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development.

What does Growing Home do?

Growing Home develops innovative urban agriculture initiatives with economic development potential.

Growing Home offers a transitional jobs program that targets people with multiple barriers to employment.

Growing Home works in low-income communities.

Growing Home works to create green jobs and stimulate economic opportunity via an organic agriculture social enterprise.

What activities does Growing Home do during its off season?

Our job training program runs from April to October. From November to March, all segments of our staff are busy. Administratively, we are securing funding for the next year and building our community partnerships. Our job training staff do a review of the previous season’s program and usually end up revising our curriculum, our goals, etc. based on their findings. Our farmers take a much needed break in November, and then begin planning for the farming season in December and January. Because our hoophouses allow us to grow all year round, we are able to harvest hearty greens like spinach and kale throughout the winter, to sell wholesale and at farmers markets.

How does Growing Home measure its success?

We have a number of specific measures: amount of produce grown and sold, amount of produce sold into Englewood, # of interns trained, # of interns placed in full-time employment by the end of the program, # of interns placed into full-time employment by 3 months after the program, # of interns who remain out of prison, # of interns who gain/maintain stable housing.

Many of the changes we seek to make are incremental ones that will only be visible after many years, or are qualitative rather than quantitative. We also measure success by self-reported improvements in intern self-esteem, sense of wellbeing, sense of achievement and “ability” in the world.

In 2009, we’ll be working with MCIC (Metro Chicago Information Corporation) to do analysis of our work in Englewood to improve the food system.

How did Growing Home get started?

Please see Growing Home's history.

How does Growing Home get its funding?

Growing Home is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. We receive funding from local and national foundations as well as governmental organizations, small and large businesses, and individuals. In addition, approximately 15% of our income is earned by sales of our organic produce.

Can Growing Home start an urban farm in my community?

That depends! While Growing Home does envision operating additional farm sites in the future, our ability to take on new projects is based on availability of land for farming, for initial site developments, and many other considerations. Please feel free to contact us with opportunities and ideas.

I want to use Growing Home as a model to start a job training program in my community. What resources can Growing Home offer?

Growing Home offers some consulting services for individuals and organizations interested in replicating our social enterprise model. Please contact us for more information.

How much does it cost to set up and maintain a farm?

The answer to this is “It depends.” There are lot of considerations: where the farm is located, how large the farm site is, quality of the soil, need for environmental testing and/or clean up, number and size of hoophouses, size and type of processing buildings, etc. Other considerations include zoning of the site and whether or not it is designed to be permanent or to grow year-round. Growing Home estimates the cost of setting up additional permanent, year-round urban farms to be $450,000 per farm, which would include environmental testing, buildings and set up labor.

Why should I support Growing Home?

An investment in Growing Home is an investment in the future: the future of food, the future of urban farming, the future of each intern in our program. In Illinois, the recidivism rate is approximately 50% - half of the people who come out of jail in Illinois return to jail within three years. And each person in prison costs the state approximately $30,000 every year. In our seven years of job training, 90% of the people who have participated in our job training program have stayed out of prison, saving Illinois money and helping transform the lives of people who are ready to change.

In addition, Growing Home is tackling one of America’s biggest problems head on: by growing food in Chicago, we’re helping transform the food system, taking back agriculture from the factory farmers and giving high quality produce to consumers.

A financial investment in Growing Home helps fund transformation on many level.

How can I get involved?

In addition to supporting Growing Home through tax-deductible financial and in-kind donations, you can apply to serve as a tutor or mentor, work side-by-side with our interns and staff at farmers markets, help coordinate our Annual Benefit, or volunteer to teach workshops on topics ranging from art therapy to food preservation.

Plus, we’re always looking for business partners to help find employment for our program graduates, secure funding for specific projects, and help us find more ways to grow.