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Alexandra (Ola) Klimczak, 

​CFPAC Foodshed Mapping and Public Procurement Evaluation Project

The original goals of the project

1. A smaller portion of the goal was to continue mapping the Minnesota border county closest to Illinois wrapping up areas not completed within the 15-20 hour timeframe of the SUD 451 advocacy project.
2. I was to clean up the 250 mile midwestern foodshed map, uploading it for stakeholders onto the CFPAC ArcGis account.
3. The project next was to start identifying potential pilot counties closer to Cook county. It involved overlaying the 2017 Agricultural census data portraying density of Black Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) farmers with our GPS tagged locations of farms by county. The aim was to notice where our data sets might be incomplete and  potentially underrepresenting BIPOC farmers.  I aimed to better ensure already researched areas do not perpetuate unintentional gaps in food producer data.
4. The long term goal of the project was to reach Ethic Review document (IRB) approval status meaning we were allowed to reach out to and communicate with farmers using an approved script. The aim was to be transparent about the project and to minimize any potential emotional distress from hard topics like institutional lack of support. The goal was also to ensure a usable question bank and approach is maintained creating standardized research prompts 6o use in the many remaining counties.
5. This project, if time allowed, was to start testing the approach with Cook County area food growers. Part of the project was to do site visits to ground truth, or confirm if farms were still in operation and if the addresses and GPS coordinates we had were accurate. Once IRB approval was acquired I would start reaching out to Cook county farmers. I was to keep building relationships with farmers to better understand the why of their operations, their ideal customer base and upcoming goals.

                             Evidence of achieving the project's original goals

1. I completed mapping the Minnesota border county and moved onto the pilot project of Cook county.
2. I posted the updated map and made sure all of the google sheets documents included both the addresses and accurate geocoding for further use. The google sheets document was updated with my suggestion for entries to be removed and created a separate area with those removed entries for future reference. I then reuploaded the map with the updates
3. Upon the updates to the map and comparison to the Agricultural Census, a meeting with CFPAC staff led to Will county and Kankakee county being added. Jesse was assigned Will county, Jess to Berrien and Kayla to Kankakee and I to Cook county. Later I was assigned to also pick up Berrien County Mi because one of the teammates had graduated.  Berrien county is known for ideal climates and soil to grow a large variety of vegetables, and stone fruits (apples, peaches, plums etc). Many growers there we learned use brokers to bring their food to Chicago markets.
4. Howard, Jesse and Jess and myself  worked on the process together going through the training, coming up with the phrasing of the project summary, the wording of outreach, and the interview guide. We were able to successfully achieve IRB approval for the research in a way that will allow further collaborations with newer students. We tested the process of reaching out to, working alongside and conversing with farm operators in Cook County to learn the why and how of their food system journey.
5.  For the Cook County pilot I reached out to known contacts about any missing farmers and geocoded and loaded the farm sites into ArcGis. I also used the data in a project looking at food access and transit times (using the network analysis)  Areas without full service grocery stores were illustrated and compared to area incomes based on the 2010 census and to former areas of redlining where BIPOC residents were denied fair access to owning land and generational wealth building. Also wanted to evaluated which farms are best located for employee, volunteer and customer access by mapping farms in relation to the nearest cta and metra stops noting which locations have limited frequency or non 24 hours service

I then planned and executed a series of field trips to confirm the locations of the farms, taking pictures and gps tags as well as notes about the surrounding area as seen from the ground.  Later, I went into google maps and did a spatial analysis of the farm sites confirmed as still operational. The spatial analysis involved noting closest public procurement sites such as schools, churches, senior centers, hospitals, museums etc. I noted overwintering structures, hoop houses, sheds, shipping containers and potential layout of the farms. I also noted proximity to transportation via rail, roads, and highways

The next part of the project entailed reaching out, scheduling initial calls or visits and up to 3-5 follow up work on the farm times with some growers where we dug deeper into the why and how of farming in place, in the city. I would take field notes and sometimes photos if the farm managers were consenting. I started with We Sow We Grow then, The Talking Farm in Evanston, Growing Home on South Wood Street, The Refugee Training Farm, Cedillo's, The Farm on Ogden (associated with Legends incubator farm and the rooftop garden at the McCormick Place and most recently Co-grow biodynamics.  I also visited Patchwork farms and the Urban Growers Collective unofficially.

Challenges facing the project and/or continued work on the project that could be done by DePaul students or others.

This will be an ongoing project with room for many more students to participate. There are still many counties to confirm the existing data entries and find any new food producers. In Cook County alone there are 45 additional food producers yet to be included in the pilot. There was some confusion with newer students on where to find existing data and what the procedure to follow would be on their assigned counties. A set onboarding area with a task flow chart would be good. I would recommend each county that is added to the study has a new google sheets document or a Trello or other project management document to track when and how a grower was last contacted, any question still remaining for the growers or the project leads like Howard.

Howard was a wealth of information on key people, projects and policies impacting the food system. Some kind of centralized rolodex for community partners and a document listing local policies or other research projects that students should be aware of when interacting with farmers would be helpful. Scheduling both within the team and with farm managers means that the flow of work was not consistent. Some farmers wanted to schedule weeks in advance and others only with a few days' notice. It is best to be reaching out to several growers at the same time to help fill the gaps.

Data management and release was also a point of confusion. The farmers have not seen the profiles or were able to make connections among themselves due to my work or observations. The level of information security around the baseline map of grower names and locations and utility was uncertain for me. At points I was not sure who my audience was in the long run as I kept seeing how important connecting farmers to skilled volunteer networks or to learn from each other would be immensely valuable.In some situations based on social cues felt it not a good idea to ask for participation- because I did not have the answers on how quickly the data/work would have an impact, I did not want to be misleading.

Personally I felt like I would have wanted to do more in the allotted quarter spanning the fellowship. Initially a large barrier was not having the confidence or skills in gis/ feeling isolated. Then it felt hard to get timely answers from the CFPAC team and I felt like I was being bothersome. I also faced some health issues that diminished my capacity.

Impact on issues of social equity and/or sustainability.

The majority of impact of the work is yet to come in utilizing and sharing the data sets. I do feel that my time on the farms and working alongside growers helped to build a feeling of support. Practically, my dedicated work weeding  helped save or bolster certain crops increasing yield and access of fresh foods to the surrounding communities lacking in access to full service groceries. My hands-on work had more of an impact, my speaking with sharing knowledge and ideas while weeding alongside hard working growers of food had a direct impact on supporting the growers and their communities. I cried several times when growers explained the specific impact I had on their harvest or their day,  I try to undersell my skill sets in the face of these amazingly skilled farmers.

 BIPOC people in many areas are often underrepresented in data or limited to very outdated information. The project also helps to keep databases more current with the large shifts of land values and food prices after the pandemic. The city of Chicago and Cook County are now actively looking for places to expand urban and semi urban farming. My work can help illuminate which farmers are even open to or capable of expansion.  I believe there is room in the Chicago market and community preferences for a variety of approaches to growing food and creating community spaces.

At a larger scale, I was able to create maps customized on demand for  local and regional representatives working on increasing funding access and advocacy for local food production. The field notes, mapping and interviews can be used to help public procurement buyers understand the realities of a growing season, the reason for starting a farm and the scope of the dream farmers have, and what the owners/managers workers themselves identify as the most pressing needs or challenges. In social equity work it is important to not speak for or in the place of the communities already underserved by the food system.  As the project continues, themes or geographic patterns of need and opportunity might arise for future collaboration between locations to respond to climate and ecosystem challenges, share volunteer forces, or work together to grow enough for larger scale purchase

In summary, I visited Qty 60 farms in summer and autumn and created file folders for each with photos and spatial analysis. The next stage I interacted with staff from 9 Cook County farms  with more intensive visits and conversation. I attended buyer supplier mixers and local research Zoom calls. At We Sow We Grow, I helped build beds accessible for elders and prepped the materials to fill the growing area. The concept used was hugelkultur, cutting and transporting wood twigs, logs, leaves, plants matter and compost mounds providing a multi-year environment for beneficial bacteria and for better drainage. This method also helps “bury carbon" instead of burning unwanted materials, This project also prevented fossil fuels use as it was sourced from the lot next door. We also unloaded and set up compost containers to be sold and given away to the community. At Cedillo's I weeded, helping clear room as the season shifts and co-plating life cycles of plant heights interacted. I focused on fostering an environment of green beans, eggplants, carrots, lettuce, tomatillos, squash. At the Growing Home I weeded several beds during my visit. At CoGro Biodynamics I helped harvest sweet potatoes, create mulch pathways and prepare land for a cold frame to allow for winter growing of leafy greens and hardy crops.

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