Urban Growers Collective (UGC) was founded in Chicago as a Black- and women-led nonprofit that works closely with local partners to develop and support community-based food systems that promote health, economic development, healing and creativity through urban agriculture.

UGC produces vegetables, fruits, culinary and medicinal herbs, edible flowers, ornamental plants, goats, chickens and honeybees. UGC markets directly to customers through on-site farm stands, a mobile farmers market, a community-supported agriculture program, and restaurant and wholesale accounts. Initially reliant on just 11 acres, mostly on the South Side of Chicago, UGC needed to ensure a secure land base to scale operations to meet existing demand and allow for advanced farmer training.

On behalf of UGC, The Conservation Fund purchased a 30-acre farm that includes five greenhouses, a roadside sales center, a pole barn and a farmhouse. This farm infrastructure is well suited to allow the organization to consolidate all of its livestock operations and, with the on-site sales center, expand its apiary and vegetable operations. Strategically located in unincorporated Cook County, the farm is in close proximity to existing customers and Chicago city limits.

UGC gains immediate access to the farm under a flexible lease. The collective will meet key financial benchmarks and make infrastructure investments to put it in a position to purchase the farm from TCF within three years of securing a farmland conservation easement. Using a “buy-support-protect-sell” model, the Farms Fund is providing UGC with a pathway to affordable farmland ownership.

Farmer Vision

• Expansion of vegetable, fruit, herb, honeybee, chicken and goat farm operations to support an on-site farm stand; and
• Advanced farmer training that provides graduates with the skills needed to establish thriving agricultural businesses