Far South Side students will operate the hydroponic farm year-round and share the harvest with the community. Neighbors can tour the farm and get free produce at Saturday’s grand opening.

By Atavia Reed

ALTGELD GARDENS — Far South Side students will welcome neighbors to their first hydroponic farm this weekend, disrupting a history of food injustice and disinvestment families have faced in Altgeld Gardens for years. 

Over a dozen high school students participating in By The Hand Club For Kids at Altgeld-Murray will celebrate the grand opening Saturday of Bowen Harvest, a 500-square-foot hydroponic container farm.

Beginning at 11:30 a.m., neighbors can visit Bowen Harvest, 13015 S. Ellis Ave., for a community market, food trucks and free boxes of fruits and vegetables provided by Top Box Foods. Students and program leaders will also offer tours of the farm. 

In six weeks, students have grown 2,000 heads of pesticide-free lettuce in the container farm, said Andraya Yousfi, chief of partnership and development at By The Hand Club. They’ll harvest the first crop and distribute the environmentally green produce to the community, Yousfi said.

“Our students are trailblazers,” Yousfi said.

By The Hand Club For Kids, a faith-based program for youth in first grade through young adulthood, has served the Altgeld Gardens community for nearly two decades, Yousfi said.

The nonprofit received a $1 million grant from Kenilworth Union Church’s Gilbert and Marlene Bowen Christian Outreach Fund in 2022, which laid the foundation for the farm and nutrition program, Yousfi said. 

Freight to Plate, a women-owned agriculture service company, partnered with the nonprofit to create a hydroponic container farm that can enhance high school students’ entrepreneurial, science, technology, engineering, math and reading skills, Yousfi said.

The farm would also have to address one of Altgeld Garden’s most critical issues: food insecurity, Yousfi said. 

The closest grocery store to Altgeld Gardens is over 3 miles away, and there isn’t a direct public transportation route neighbors can take to reach the store, Yousfi said. Accessing fresh food can take up to two hours for families without cars, Yousfi said. 

Rosebud Farm Stand, Altgeld Gardens’ last grocery store, closed in 2018.

Neighbors have been advocating for Yellow Banana, a company that buys and operates stores under the Save A Lot name, to build a store in the community. 

“Our parents and families, as well as our different community groups, have discussed that food access is the No. 1 need in the neighborhood,” Yousfi said. “What we proposed was, how do we have youth be involved in being the solution and the leaders of food access in their community?”

Bowen Harvest, a 500-square-foot “miracle that somehow we pulled off,” was the answer, Yousfi said. 

For Shania Tickett, a sophomore at Butler College Prep, learning how to plant and harvest fresh food in her community has been therapeutic. 

A youth member of the nonprofit since second grade, Tickett wasn’t sure if learning the ins and outs of agriculture was a hobby she wanted to pursue, she said. 

But working with her group and watching the produce grow had made her proud, Tickett said. Program leaders describe her as a “natural leader” at the farm. 

“A couple of years ago, we had the farm stand, and it shut down. This is a good way to put fresh produce back into the community,” Tickett said.

Bowen Harvest will yield over 1 ton of produce annually, and students will harvest every six to 12 weeks, Yousfi said.

Fresh produce grows year-round in a hydroponic farm, using a water-based indoor system instead of soil, Yousfi said.

“It’s a small footprint for both water and electrical consumption, but the actual volume and production of produce is phenomenal,” Yousfi said.

Bowen Harvest is “one piece of the solution” to eradicating food insecurity, Yousfi said. Neighbors and local partners are working diligently to readdress a wrong long bestowed on the community. 

“We’re hoping that through our small piece, we inspire people to get creative, think out of the box, build partnerships and see what can be done,” Yousfi said. 

Lead photo: Bowen Harvest, 500-square-foot hydroponic container farm, will bring free fresh produce to Altgeld Gardens, a food desert. Credit: By The Hand Club For Kids