Urban Agriculture:
Feeding the Movement

Program At-A-Glance

8:30 a.m.

Check-in
Convening, refreshments

9:15 a.m.

Welcome
Sophia Siskel, President and CEO, Chicago Botanic Garden

Overview/Urban Agriculture framework & expected outcomes
Rose Hayden-Smith, M.A. Ed., M.A., Ph.D. Candidate, County Director
University of California CE and Food and Society Policy Fellow

9:30 a.m.
Session 1:

What does food security mean in Chicago?

Nicole Robinson, Director of Community Involvement, Kraft Foods
Kate Maehr, Executive Director, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Mary Ellen Caron, Commissioner, Department of Family and Support Services

10:15 a.m.
Session 2:

Overview of urban agriculture projects in the Chicago area

Narrated slide show: what’s going on and what is needed to advance local urban agriculture, plus reports from:

Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council
http://chicagofoodpolicy.org

Advocates for Urban Agriculture
http://auachicago.wordpress.com

11 a.m.

Break

11:15 a.m.
Session 3:

National, state, regional, and local legislation and policy initiatives on urban agriculture

Neil D. Hamilton, Dwight D. Opperman Chair of Law and Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University

Debbie Hillman, Coordinator, Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force

Martin Bailkey, Co-Coordinator, MetroAg: the Alliance for Urban Agriculture

12:15 p.m.

Lunch

1 p.m.
Session 4:

What funding streams can support urban agriculture,
green jobs, and workforce development?

Katherine Kelly, Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture
http://www.kccua.org

Therese McMahon, Deputy Director, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Bureau of Workforce Development

Elizabeth Ü, Manager of Strategic Development, RSF Social Finance and Food and Society Policy Fellow http://rsfsocialfinance.org/

2 p.m.

Break

2:10 p.m.

Working groups: making urban agriculture significant:
what will it take?

Detail on afternoon working groups

1. Market Opportunity: calculating the gap between local food production and unmet demand
2. Land Use Issues: recalculating the economic value of urban land
3. Job Training: defining the needed skills and employment scenarios for urban agriculturalists
4. Community Health: understanding the challenges to healthier diets
5. Barriers to Expanding Urban Agriculture: local, state, and federal policies that help and hurt

4 p.m.

Break

4:15 p.m.

Wrap-up: Facilitators for each working group report results

5 p.m.

Reception

Rose Hayden-Smith is an academic with the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, where she serves as Director of Cooperative Extension in Ventura County. Her work focuses on providing gardening and food systems education to youth, educators and community audiences. She has worked with 4-H and Master Gardener programs. A practicing U.S. historian, she is a nationally recognized expert on Victory Gardens, wartime food policies, and school garden programs. She is a 2008-2009 Kellogg Foundation/IATP Food and Society Policy Fellow (FASP). The creator of UC’s Victory Grower website and blog, her work can be found at http://groups.ucanr.org/victorygrower/.