2022: Our Year in Review

In 2022, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) continued to advance food justice and sovereignty for all Chicago residents by coordinating, facilitating and supporting policies to strengthen the right of Chicagoans to produce and access sustainable, fair, nutritious, affordable, and culturally significant food.  

The year was marked by flourishing relationships, and transformational developments, with an overall excitement for the progress taking place in the Chicago Metro area. As we settle into a new year, we are excited to share all that the CFPAC staff, partners, and supporters have collaborated on toward building a lasting, equitable, and resilient food system for all.

Heading into 2023, all of us at the Chicago Food Policy Action Council are eager to continue furthering our mission and increasing our impact across the region. Thank you all for your continuous support.

The Year in Review

CFPAC spent 2022 convening stakeholders to share ideas, lift up regional impact, and cultivate collaboration.

  • Chicago Food Justice Rhizome Network

    The Chicago Food Justice Rhizome Network has now grown to 252 members, with 5 active working groups! The network collaboratively has advocated for how the USDA Local Foods Purchasing Agreement cooperative grant funding should be spent in Illinois, as well as having created a list of questions for candidates running for office in Chicago. This network even began hosting job fairs to assist in more intentionally recruiting food justice advocates to work alongside CFPAC with partner organizations. In 2022, we hosted 4 jobs fairs, featuring 26 food justice employment opportunities. So far, at least one employer has chosen to hire someone they met at one of these job fairs!

  • 17th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit

    In 2022, an astounding 1,340 people registered to attend the 17th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit to talk about Collective Care in Chicago’s Food System. This summit featured over 50 sessions, and speakers from all along the food chain, as well as across Chicago and Cook County. A big hit at this summit included a Game and Raffle, which featured prizes kindly donated by local organizations and small businesses. This new addition, allowed us to increase our virtual engagement, and support the promotion of goods and services from local food entrepreneurs and advocates. Overall, it was one of the most celebrated components of this year’s summit.

  • Good Food Purchasing Initiative 

    The Metro Chicago Good Food Purchasing Initiative continued to grow and evolve in 2022. CFPAC was awarded a total of $4.4 million in funding to support GFPI development over the next 5 years.

    CFPAC has continued to support GFPP implementation with public meal programs managed by the City of Chicago and Cook County. We supported the completion of a GFPP Baseline Assessment by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Cook County Health (CCH), advised on the drafting of GFPP-aligned solicitation, contract, and policy handbook language (with the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services (DFSS), Downtown Riverwalk, Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO), and the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC)), and supported Good Food Action Plan development with CPS, JTDC, and CCSO.

    Alongside our partners at the City of Chicago Food Equity Council, Chicago Department of Public Health, West Side United, The Doula Part, the IL Public Health Institute’s Alliance for Health Equity, and the Cook County Department of Public Health, CFPAC awarded Rush University Medical Center a cost-sharing opportunity to pilot GFPP, which will begin this year. CFPAC also worked with the Cook County Department of Public Health to launch a Suburban Cook County Microgrant to farms, food businesses, and social enterprises providing emergency food to Suburban Cook County communities that were hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Six microgrant awardees were awarded $125,000 to help them produce, prepare, and deliver healthy food to food pantries and other community partners across the County. They also received business development support from The University of IL Extension’s Local Food & Small Farms division, Southland Development Authority, and Real Foods Collective. The six microgrant awardees are:

      • Centro de Trabajadores Unidos

      • Food He.ro L3C

      • Grace United Church

      • Health Policy Institute

      • “Roots, Eggs, and Greens” Project of Co-Gro Biodynamic Growers

      • Street Vendors Association of Chicago

    Alongside community partners, CFPAC was able to host three events, the GFPI’s Buyer/Supplier Mixer Series: Summer Buyer/Supplier Mixer at The Experimental Station (June), Fall Good Food Vendor Fair at The Northman - Downtown Riverwalk (October), and Good Food & Urban Ag Forum at the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation (December). Over 250 people engaged in the series, including local farmers, food businesses, distributors, prepared meal providers, community meal administrators, and public officials. This series brought people together from all across the Chicago area strengthening and forming new ties. Lastly, CFPAC was able to support the convening of labor organizations and worker centers that are planning a workshop series about GFPP for food chain workers that are connected to institutional food supply chains. Roosevelt University’s Policy Research Collaborative hired a GFPP Food Worker Rights and Livelihood Project Manager to support the workshop series and research how GFPP can best be leveraged to support safe, healthy working conditions and better wages in the food industry. The workshop series will begin this year with the support of HEAL Food Alliance, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Chicago Jobs with Justice, Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, UIC Office of Healthy Work, Street Vendors Association of Chicago, Chicago Community & Workers’ Rights, Warehouse Workers for Justice, and Chicago Workers Collaborative.

  • Productive Landscapes

    The Productive Landscapes Task Force met twice in 2022 to share updates among agencies and make plans for the upcoming year. Several new Productive Landscapes-focused staff, Sarah Tate, Lauren Drumgold, and Ken Pan have supported the development of an interactive tool that seeks to increase transparency on how farmers and gardeners can rent or purchase city-owned land for the purpose of growing food. We anticipate this tool will be ready for public use in late January 2023.

  • New Hires

    In 2022 the CFPAC team grew! We are thrilled to have added two new staff members to our team, Stephanie and Justin. Stephanie has come on as a Program Associate offering her skills, abilities, and experience to directly impact our programmatic outcomes. Justin is our Director of Operations who has been key in helping our team build internal systems, structure, and HR support. 

    In addition to these two full-time hires, CFPAC wouldn’t be able to do as much as we do without the critical support from our interns and Emerson Hunger Center Fellows. Lauren and Sarah devoted their time to work on our Productive Landscapes work to help us make great strides of progress in 2022. Aliyah, Isabel, and Sofia have helped advance our work in supporting the implementation efforts supporting the Good Food Purchasing Initiative. Finally, CFPAC is eager to introduce a few new team members to all of you! But more on that later, until then…

    Happy New Year!

    If you are in a position to support us financially, please consider making a contribution to CFPAC as we raise funds to direct resources to improve the health, wealth, and sovereignty of communities across Chicago and Cook County.

Guest User