Lawndale is home to the Farm on Ogden, a partnership between the Chicago Botanic Garden and Lawndale Christian Health Center. The facility grows 150,000 pounds of produce every year and features a 7,300 square foot greenhouse space, an indoor year-round farmstand, commercial kitchen, 50,000 gallon aquaponics operation, and classroom space. But perhaps its most important mission to provide job training, including a re-entry program for ex-offenders and a farmer incubator program. Angela Mason, Vice President of Urban Agriculture Programs for the the Chicago Botanic Gardens, says, “the number one goal when leaving the program is job-readiness.” For more information, visit https://www.chicagobotanic.org/urbanagriculture/farm_on_ogden.
Here’s WGN Radio’s Kim Gordon with more details on this Wintrust Neighborhood News story: