CLC’s Urban Farm Center opens its doors: ‘It’s an indoor farmers market all year-round’

Abundant produce is now growing and being harvested indoors in downtown Waukegan at the College of Lake County’s Urban Farm Center.

Some of the produce is going directly into the farm’s commercial kitchen, where it is being prepared as part of the school’s culinary program. The rest is available for the community to purchase at the farm’s market area.

Eliza Fournier, the college’s director of Lancer Farms who oversees the new urban farm, said the center’s use of produce grown both hydroponically and in a greenhouse allows people to take home vegetables harvested the same day.

“It’s a place for shopping and learning in a living laboratory,” Fournier said before the opening. “It’s an indoor farmers market all year-round. It’s a place small food businesses can grow and reach an expanded market.”

Nearly 1,000 people sampled food and purchased produce at the formal opening of CLC’s Urban Farm Center on Oct. 17 in downtown Waukegan, beginning a new chapter in the school’s mission.

“Growing the vegetables is an investment in our community,” Lakeshore Campus Dean Jesus Ruiz said. “It creates a place where education, commerce, and everyday life come together in Waukegan, where our neighbors can shop because they will be the customers.”

Entering the 24,000-square-foot building on Sheridan Road just north of the Lakeshore Campus Student Center, completed in 2023, there is a large space with produce from all three of the school’s farms — the Urban Farm Center, the Grayslake Campus Farm and the Greenbelt Farm.

Along with the market area is the commercial kitchen. On the second floor is a mushroom lab where Fournier said the plant is nurtured; a vertical farm where primarily lettuce and herbs are now grown hydroponically; and a greenhouse for cucumbers, tomatoes, and eventually more.

As scores of people arrived for the formal opening ceremony, they were handed a flower. When Ruiz, the last speaker, finished his remarks, he explained the purpose of the flowers most people were holding.

“I’m going to give you a countdown,” he said. “When I get to the end, I’m going to say, ‘Let’s get growing.’ Raise them in the air. Five, four, three, two, one, let’s get growing.”

After raising the flowers twice, some music and a little more dancing, people began to enter the building until the event ended nearly four hours later. School spokesperson Austin Weber said there were more than 600 in the first two hours, and nearly 1,000 overall.

Jay Stephen, a Waukegan resident who lives near the college’s Lakeshore Campus in downtown Waukegan, was sampling some of the freshly prepared food. He said he liked what he tasted, as well as his new neighbor.

“It’s exciting to have a place in our community where people can get sustainable fresh, nutritious food free of contaminants and pesticides,” Stephen said.

“It’s fantastic to be able to grow food and feed people in an urban desert,” added Charlotte Raasch of Grayslake.

Nina Davis, the owner and operator of Gerdy’s Gourmet Popcorn with locations in Waukegan and North Chicago, supplied popcorn for the occasion. She said she liked what she saw as she toured the building.

“I love it,” Davis said. “It’s a great advantage to have a farm center indoors. It will bring the community together. It’s a place where people can learn.”

Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said before the event started that first the student center and now the farm are central to the growth of the city and the Rebuild Waukegan effort he started more than a year ago.

“It is truly the future of what is going to happen as we rebuild Waukegan,” Cunningham said. “Projects like this will spark growth and manufacturing by private entities as they all help rebuild Waukegan.”

State Sen. Adriane Johnson, a Buffalo Grove Democrat, said she remembers the groundbreaking less than two years ago and now she sees a “jewel.” She is excited about what it will do for the college and the entire community.

“This high-tech hub has transformed an empty lot into a high-yield, sustainable food and community epicenter,” Johnson said. “Through the CLC Lakeshore Campus, this facility will transform lives.”

As the farm continues to progress, Fournier said additional crops may be added. Besides raising produce, small food businesses will be able to move their cooking operation into the commercial kitchen so the entrepreneurs can take their company to the next level. It is also a place for small farmers.

“We’ll have food from all the Lancer farms and small farmers from Lake County and beyond,” Fournier said. “We’ll have food grown by small farmers within 400 miles.”

A $21.25 million project, Weber said, $15 million was raised by the College of Lake County Foundation, and 81% of the total cost came from philanthropic contributions.