Group takes first steps to food autonomy for Carbondale

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) - The Carbondale Spring community group has united three community gardens to streamline its mission to make Carbondale a food autonomous city.

The seed that started the group's food autonomy project was planted in the fall of 2018. Nick Smaligo, one of the Carbondale Spring's chartering members, said there was a meeting of about 30 people that came together to find ways of improving food security in the city - a debate about food assistance benefits was raging in Washington, D.C., at the time.

What is the Carbondale Spring? A proposed 4-point plan for Carbondale's future.

'œWe shouldn't have this problem,'ť Smaligo said of the general consensus coming out of that meeting - residents of the city should not be afraid of having too little to eat.

From this bloomed the Carbondale Spring Food Autonomy Project.

In 2018, the Carbondale Spring announced its presence with the release of a four-part plan for paving the way to a brighter future for the city, at least as they see it. A central component is the shifting of funds away from the city's police department and into other social justice projects, including the creation of a series of farms and gardens that would provide the city's residents and markets with food.

The group sees this as vital given the looming health and food security problems global climate change will bring.

In the 18 months since that first meeting, Smaligo said a lot has happened. A small coalition has formed with three community gardens that were already established: The Washington Street Garden, The Red Hen Garden and The Attucks Community Farm. Smaligo said a board has also been fashioned to oversee the cooperative community garden project and to help streamline its planning and planting.

Marilyn Tipton, vice president of the Food Autonomy Project board, said she has big hopes. She recalled her family farm on the northeast side of Carbondale where they raised pigs and had a vegetable garden that always had extras for neighbors. This is what was on her mind when she first heard about the project.

'œI thought, '~Wow, I want to do that,''ť Tipton said.

So, she joined the board. She said the group is about a third of the way to its goal of having 12 gardens throughout the city. Thinking more specifically about her neighborhood on the city's northeast side, she hopes for a return to the days of deep community connection.

'œFor me, it would bring the neighborhood back to where it was when I grew up because we were a strong community,'ť she said of her dreams for the Food Autonomy Project.

The Food Autonomy Project grew legs this spring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Smaligo said a local philanthropist had liked the other initiatives the Carbondale Spring had and awarded the group a $23,000 grant to help jump-start the Food Autonomy Project. This was done in order to help fill any gaps left by potential food shortages caused by the virus.

Of this grant, Smaligo said about $15,000 was used for infrastructure at some of the gardens - things like irrigation systems and garden tools. The rest has been used to pay community members $10 an hour to work in the gardens.

Smaligo said the project has been successful at harvesting and distributing food to neighborhoods every one to two weeks.

But, he said, it's done even more than that. Working with local architectural designer Jessica Allee, the Food Autonomy Project also built 12 chicken coops, free of charge, for Carbondale residents. Smaligo said Little River Research and Design allowed the group to use its facility to build 'œcoop kits'ť that were delivered and constructed by volunteers. All this was done for free with the understanding that extra eggs would be shared with neighbors.

Looking to the future, group members have a lot of ideas.

'œGiving food away isn't the whole plan,'ť Board President Chuck Paprocki said, 'œit's a start.'ť

At the moment, he said food is going to those who need it most but added that 'œthis isn't the end of the project.'ť

Paprocki and Tipton said eventually there is the hope to sell food to local markets in order to make the project somewhat self-sustaining. Paprocki said giving food away serves two purposes: Helping people meet their most basic needs, and to be a gateway to education both about the Food Autonomy Project but also about healthier eating and living.

Smaligo and Paprocki also said that the Carbondale Spring Food Autonomy Project is one piece of a larger puzzle of redefining what Carbondale can be and how it can find itself more self-sustaining in all ways, not just with food production. But, the gardens are certainly a start.

'œGardens and chickens, that's a great kind of first step in creating food autonomy in the town,'ť Smaligo said.

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Source: The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan, https://bit.ly/30CsypN