West Side Chicago Food Farmer To Spend Winter Building Partnerships

Urban Grower/Advocate LaShawn Miller Uses Experiences to Press for Change

There is no mistaking the Chicago urban environment in which LaShawn Miller of Finding Justice A Flower and Vegetable Garden produces healthy hyperlocal food to address food insecurity. Photo by Bob Heuer.

Bob Heuer, a longtime advocate for thriving regional agriculture economies, is a friend and frequent contributor to Local Food Forum. Bob leads HNA Networks. The Evanston-based firm is helping the nature conservation coalition Chicago Wilderness Alliance build common ground with both commercial-scale and community-centered agriculture.

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By Bob Heuer/HNA Networks

Last Monday at noon, LaShawn Miller was at her farm, Finding Justice A Flower and Vegetable Garden, in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood.

She and her cousin Ivy Carter harvested more than 50 pounds of collards for a 1:30 p.m. pickup. And on Wednesday, the leafy greens were a welcome sight three miles away at Harmony Community Cares’ food pantry.

“Farm-fresh food is a really big deal for food pantries,” LaShawn says. “They get a lot of ‘rescued’ produce that belongs in the compost bin.”

A neighborhood resident for 25+ years, LaShawn began growing food during the pandemic. More than 5-½ years later, she recognizes that urban agriculture is a huge challenge.

“As new business owners, we all try to solve our problems with our own resources, and it’s exhausting,” she says.

These hands-on experiences led LaShawn to start a new role last January as a policy organizer for Illinois Stewardship Alliance. The Springfield-based non-profit has spearheaded the adoption of myriad state laws aimed at promoting a better-for-people-and-the-planet food system.

In coming months, LaShawn plans to invest time fostering an alignment of food grower goals and coordination for collective impact throughout Chicago’s West Side.  She also wants to work with two organizations, Advocates for Urban Agriculture and Chicago Community Gardeners Association (CCGA), on their new City of Chicago agri-food plan. (See more in my Local Food Forum article published on November 12.)

Market Development: Catalyst for Partnerships

Over the summer, LaShawn joined up with Garden Works, a coalition of West Siders who supply food for the Garfield Park Neighborhood Market. This farmers market is open on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month at The Hatchery, Chicago's food business incubator.

Garden Works is a program of the West Garfield Community Council. This non-profit has facilitated partnerships for the past 20 years, leading to more than $50 million in community investment.

LaShawn Miller (left) with Eleanor Kole of the West Garfield Community Council during the latter's pickup of collard greens at Finding Justice Garden. Photo by Bob Heuer.

It was Council Wellness Associate Eleanor Kole who picked up the collard greens. The City had cut off the water to LaShawn’s farm plot for the winter, so Garden Works handled the washing before delivering the produce to Harmony Pantry.

LaShawn this year donated several times to Garden Works and more frequently to the St. Martin de Porres food pantry, also on the city’s West Side. “We haven’t had the capacity to search for new markets,” LaShawn explains. “A lot of what we did this year was raise awareness through donations, community engagement, tours and a Taco Tuesday event.  Also, we have donated a lot of food to those affected by the immigration reform and SNAP cuts.”

Windy City Harvest, the urban agriculture program of Chicago Botanic Garden, is a wholesale customer.

Finding Justice also was, for a short time, a source of farm products for IL-EATS. This federally funded program, created under the Biden administration, paid market rates to small farmers and transferred the fresh local food to people in need. LaShawn’s produce was delivered to the Greater Chicago Food Depository until the program’s abrupt termination by the current administration 

Finding Justice Garden has also been a vendor at PCC Salud and The Lincoln Park Farmers Market.

Need for Comprehensive Funding

LaShawn plans to connect with CCGA’s May Toy. She’s advocating for a “funding process” to enable more city farmers and gardeners to “become self-sustaining.”

LaShawn Miller's strong advocacy for urban farming prompted her to join Illinois Stewardship Alliance as a policy organizer. In the photo she is speaking at the state Capitol in Springfield to fellow advocates gathered for a Lobby Day. Photo by Bob Benenson

This community-led, citywide effort aligns with a project LaShawn is starting with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. Its statewide membership has identified the need for a state funding program to ensure adequate resources for small-scale and diversified farmers.

Last night (November 19), LaShawn participated in the monthly Food, Agriculture and Environment Committee meeting presented by state Rep. Sonya Harper, Chair of the Illinois House Agriculture and Conservation Committee. “I was able to contribute the on-the-ground perspective of small urban growers, especially around market access, funding challenges, and the need for consistent support,” LaShawn says.

“We will all thrive when we stop working in silos,” she adds. She hopes that growers, policymakers and community partners will move toward a shared vision — one in which small farms are not treated as afterthoughts, but as essential infrastructure for community health: “When we invest in local growers, we invest in stronger families, stronger neighborhoods, and a stronger city.”

LaShawn sees the next chapter of her work as a bridge between policy and lived experience. With stronger support systems, coordinated planning and meaningful financial investment, she believes small-scale growers can transform food access across the West Side.

“Urban farms can be part of the solution,” she says. “But we need the resources and respect to keep growing.”

Photo by Bob Heuer