North Lawndale Fresh is a collaborative grant making program to increase access to healthy affordable food, support community gardens and local food production, grow food enterprises, and protect and strengthen food assistance programs in the North Lawndale neighborhood. The vision is an equitable Chicagoland region where all people have knowledge of and access to healthy food. The funders involved with North Lawndale Fresh have committed to distribute a minimum of $1M for each over five years (2022-2026) to support the neighborhood.
Fresh Taste Members and Participating Funders supporting North Lawndale Fresh include Builders Vision Philanthropy, Food:Land:Opportunity, The Lumpkin Family Foundation, Walter S. Mander Foundation, and Steans Family Foundation.
North Lawndale Fresh 2025 Grantees
- Chicago Grows Food—to continue the Grow Your Groceries Home Garden program which aims to address food insecurity and barriers to gardening in low food access areas by providing residents with grow kits and a variety of educational resources for maintaining their gardens and increasing their knowledge of how to grow their food. $25,000
- Common Threads—to expand the Growing Farm-to-School Learning Opportunities collaborative program with Sumner Academy and CYC-Sidney Epstein Youth Center which provides cooking and nutrition education programs with local ingredients to increase students’ and families’ food literacy, cooking skills, and access to healthy snacks and meals. The program will work to bring on two other schools in North Lawndale to expand program offerings. $50,000
- Chicago Horticultural Society (Windy City Harvest)—to support the expansion of the VeggieRx program in partnership with the Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC). Beyond food access, VeggieRx creates a linkage between fresh produce and clinical care for patients with diet-related illnesses. $200,000
- Dion’s Chicago Dream—to provide Dream Deliveries to the community of North Lawndale via partnership with The North Lawndale Food Alliance, thus improving health outcomes in the community through nutritional philanthropy. $175,000
- Gardeneers—to continue supporting school garden programs in the North Lawndale community. These school garden programs provide students with knowledge, skills, and tools to become food justice leaders in their communities and bring fresh produce to local residents and provide food to North Lawndale residents. $196,000
- Good Food Catalyst—In partnership with North Lawndale based orgs, GFC promotes health and food access in North Lawndale by supporting local growers, producers, and consumers through cooking classes, community meals, and partnerships with retailers and restaurants to expand access to healthy, culturally relevant food. $75,000
- YMEN—to continue supporting the North Lawndale Garden to Table Pipeline and the operation of its food and distribution hubs—NL Greening Committee, Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church, YMEN, The Firehouse Community Art Center and Street Vendors Association of Chicago—that distribute locally grown produce, prepared meals, and donated/rescued food reaching North Lawndale’s most isolated residents. $450,000
Grantee Resources
The 2026 Call for Ideas will open February 2, 2026. Ideas submissions will be due March 2, 2026, 11:59 p.m. CT. Sign up for our newsletter to receive initiative announcements.
Learn more about Fresh Taste’s related initiative, Austin Fresh, here.