Stories

AOLC launches Eat to Live project in Englewood

urban gardening, local food, urban farming, kids gardening, school gardenYale Elementary students particpate in a gardening project led by Martha Boyd of AOLC at the future site of the Eat to Live Urban Farm & Garden in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood.

Angelic Organics Learning Center is working in partnership with Real Men Charities, Inc to develop the Eat to Live (E2L) urban Farm and Garden at 70th Place and Princeton in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The urban farm will eventually serve more than 500 participants and provide increased access to healthy fresh food, organic farming and nutrition education.

 

Angelic Organics Learning Center Presents First Ever Beginning Farmer of the Year Award at Good Food Fest



We need farmers three times a day, but how often are these farmers recognized for their ingenuity, perseverance, and stewardship? AOLC and the Upper Midwest Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) are proud to debut farmer recognition awards at this year’s Good Food Fest.  AOLC Executive Director Tom Spaulding and CRAFT Steering Committee member and AOLC board member Dominic Green will present the “Beginning Farmer of the Year” and “Farmer Mentor of the Year” awards to two members of the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT). The winning video from our video nomination process will also be debuted. The ceremony will take place at the Good Food Fest on Friday, March 15th at the opening symposium from 9:00 a.m. – 9:15 am. 

 

To be nominated, farmers submitted a short video featuring their farm and explaining why they farm along with their triumphs and struggles. 

 

And the winners are....

New video created by Roots & Wings Youth Leaders

Milca, Ketura and Deborah St. Fleurose, AOLC Youth Leaders Milca, Ketura and Deborah St. Fleurose, AOLC Youth Leaders

We’re pleased to announce a new video, created by the Youth Leaders of Angelic Organics Learning Center’s Roots & Wings program in Rockford.  This summer, the youth leaders applied for and received a grant of $2,000 from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, which allowed them to develop and launch a new free CSA program for low-income seniors in their neighborhood.

Stateline Farm Beginnings class of 2012-2013

SFB Participants 2012-2013

We are thrilled to announce that the 8th year of Stateline Farm Beginnings® has recently commenced! I wonder if anyone could have predicted, back in 2005 when Angelic Organics Learning Center offered its first Farm Beginnings class, that the demand for farmer training and the need for new farmers would persist and even grow? Maybe our founders knew. Clearly the interest in locally produced food, raised with care for the planet and for its inhabitants has soared since then.

New AOLC short film featured by Green Living Projects

Jovon Garrett (right) with Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey during the filming.Jovon Garrett (right) with Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey during the filming.

View the film now! 

 

Angelic Organics Learning Center was thrilled to be featured at the recent Green Living Projects Midwest Film Premiere event held on May 17, 2012 at the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Café Brauer. 

 

We did it! The 70 is saved!

Save the 70 Campaign

The Learning Center is excited to announce we have completed the Save the 70 campaign, and have raised the funds needed to purchase the 70 acres of beautiful wild space and farmland known as Kinnikinnick Fields. We are both jubilant and sincerely grateful to the hundreds of supporters who contributed to Save the 70. Thank you! 

 

AOLC Eco-Advocate accepts award for urban agriculture work in Rockford

AOLC and partners accept Winnebago County Soil and Water Conservation District's Chairman's Special Award

Congratulations to our Rockford partners! On January 27, the Winnebago County Soil and Water Conservation District awarded the Chairman’s Special award to AOLC partner Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum & Gardens, for its Kent Creek restoration project and urban farming projects located on the Tinker Swiss grounds.

The Learning Center featured in new book "Farm Together Now”

Farm Together NowFarm Together Now

Angelic Organics Learning Center is one of twenty small farms across America featured in a new book, Farm Together Now: A Portrait of People, Places and Ideas for a New Food Movement by Amy Franceschini and Daniel Tucker. Farm Together Now explores the current state of grassroots farming in the U.S. The authors visited small farms across America, talking to farmers about their engagement in producing sustainable food, challenging public policy, and developing community organizing efforts.

Ruby Garden Brings Rogers Park Community Together

Gardening at the Ruby Garden

Last year, Angelic Organics Learning Center partnered with the Rogers Park Green Space and Food Systems Coalition to develop a new multi-plot community garden, the Schreiber Park Ruby Garden in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. The garden is now home to 64 community garden plots (and growing!) tended by area residents and community groups, including a number of refugee groups based in the neighborhood.

 

Farmer Profile - Kim Marsin and Rachel Reklau of Sweet Home Organics

imageKim Marsin and Rachel Reklau, proud new farmers and owners of Sweet Home Organics

2009 Stateline Farm Beginning Graduates launch new CSA, Sweet Home Organics!

 

Driving home from a Farm Dreams class at Angelic Organics in the spring of 2008, Kim Marsin and Rachel Reklau couldn’t speak.