‘Not our typical audience’: CLC’s Urban Farm Center envisioned as community asset
Construction of a modern growing operation is about to get underway in downtown Waukegan with a mission beyond food production.
Announced two years ago as another element of the College of Lake County’s Lakeshore campus, the $20.8 million Urban Farm Center will provide many points of entry into the locally grown food system network, officials say.
“The primary audience is not our typical audience, which is for-credit students,” said Eliza Fournier, farm center director. “It’s the community.”
The sleek 24,000-square-foot center, adjacent to the campus student center on Sheridan Road, features a mix of uses described as offering farm-to-table opportunities.
Besides training students in hydroponic and greenhouse growing in a controlled environment, crops will be available for sale and there will be opportunities for entrepreneurs to grow their home-based businesses.
Offerings will include training and production in growing microgreens, mushrooms and vertical hydroponics; a shared kitchen for education, meals for students and the community, and for entrepreneurs to use; and a retail space offering locally grown and produced food.
The facility is designed with lots of glass affording a view of what's happening inside.
The building will house a living, learning lab for students and an “innovative hub of nourishment and food distribution for the broader community,” according to CLC.
About two-thirds of the space will involve growing, washing, packaging, storing, shipping and receiving local food products grown on site and at area farms, according to Fournier.
“From raw products to consumable products to your table in one place,” said Fournier, who worked 20 years at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and was director of the Farm on Ogden in Chicago's Lawndale neighborhood.
She said the Urban Farm Center will showcase tried and true crops such as cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and mushrooms.
This will be CLC’s third farm facility in what is described as “an ecosystem of farming opportunities and living laboratories.”
The long-standing greenhouse on the main campus in Grayslake recently was renovated and CLC manages a 1.25-acre sustainable farm at the Green Belt Forest Preserve in North Chicago.
To build the Urban Farm Center, CLC for the first time embarked on a capital campaign and adopted it as part of a master plan. Fundraising is about $1.5 million shy of the initial $15 million goal but costs have risen since the announcement.
CLC has invested $50 million in the Lakeshore campus the past several years and views the Urban Farm Center as part of a continuing campus revitalization and boost to downtown Waukegan.
“Our vision is to ensure this facility becomes a vibrant, thriving resource for everyone,” Fournier said at the May 2 groundbreaking.
“A place where we not only grow food but we grow people, opportunities and a stronger, healthier community.”
The college also has been working to improve Grow Lake County, a website involving the local food scene.
“We’re making it so it’s accurate and filling it with really great resources for those who want to eat locally,” said CLC spokesperson Lindsey Nemcek.