Collaboration: Building With Community

We often think of our work in four pillars “Build. Grow. Cook. Heal”. The Build pillar includes relationship building and collaboration that we hold as core values. Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima) is a founding principle of Fresher Together. Take a look at some of our mutual aid and collaborative partners.

To Navigate back to the build home page or view the other pillar pages please click on the options below.

Heal Pillar Image (fist with roots holding smudge stick)

Build Pillar Image (fist with roots holding a hammer)

Cook Pillar Image (fist with roots holding serving spoon)

Grow Pillar Image (fist with roots holding trowel)

community members smiling in farm.food.familias. apron

Farm. Food. Familias. (FFF)

Created as a COVID-19 Mutual Aid Response, Farm. Food. Familias. focuses on feeding hot meals to elders and folks in the community who need it most. Farm. Food. Familias Mutual-Aid Meals(FFF) is a project led by Getting Grown Collective, in collaboration with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Urban Pilon, Fresher Together, Amor y Sofrito, and Kwamena to prepare and deliver meals to families in Little Village, Englewood, and South Chicago. FFF started with 50 meals on May 6th, 2020, and currently, we prepare and deliver 350 meals each week to our community members on the South Side of the city. Each week most of our produce is sourced and/or donated from local growers.

pot roast and rice meal for farm.food.familias.

The Love Fridge Chicago

The Love Fridge is a Chicago mutual aid group grounded in food, working to place community refrigerators across the city. Love Fridge is powered by kindness, generosity, love, and the belief that being able to feed yourself is a right, not a privilege. Love Fridge’s goal is to nourish our communities while combating food scarcity and food waste and working with other like-minded community partners. Fresher Together Partners with Love Fridge to manage the, first and currently only, two love fridges in Chicago’s south side South Shore neighborhood. We fill these “take-what-you-need, leave-what-you-don’t” style community fridges with farm fresh produce as well as CBC Community Grain Shares. To learn more click here.

Fresher Together Neighbor Loaves

This partnership provides locally grown organic grain loaves of bread to Love Fridges located in the South Shore Neighborhood of Chicago. Each loaf is made with locally grown organic grain from Meadowlark Organics and Hazzard Free Farm. Purchasing a loaf not only nourishes community members but also provides financial gains to grain farmers and mill and bakery staff. In partnership with the Artisan Grain Collaborative, this initiative will be spread to bakeries throughout the country. To learn more and to purchase a loaf to share click here.

Collectiva Ukalima

Collectiva Ukalima, which translates to farmer collective, began as a group of BIPOC farmers who came together to offer each other support and community. The name of the group is a combination of both Swahili and Spanish. Through this group resources that range from financial, informational, and edible (crops) are shared. Through this sharing, we have been able to help enrich our communities and assist each other with things such as the BIPOC Harvest Bags. The current members of Collectiva Ukalima include Fresher Together, Chi-City Foods, Catatumbo Cooperative Farm, Your Bountiful Fresh Farm, and Cedillos Fresh Produce.

Community Grain Shares

Community Grain Shares create curated local grain and bean experiences for the community with a focus on making sure those, often with little or no access to local grain, receive it. We partner with local grain farmers to purchase grain and beans, especially culturally significant grain and beans in bulk to repackage and distribute to the community. These items include things like oats, beans, grits, cornmeal, flour, etc. With shared leadership, Fresher Together manages the Community Grain Shares Program.

Chicago Bread Club

The mission of the Chicago Bread Club is to share the art and knowledge of bread and to promote and expand the racial equity of the regional grain economy. With shared leadership, Fresher Together manages Chicago Bread Club and the Community Grain Shares Program. To learn more visit the website here

Pop up Pantry

Pop Up Pantry is a project of Chi City Foods coordinated in 2020 by Fresher Together.

Assembled similarly to the Harvest Bag, Pop Up Pantry is a monthly produce giveaway that benefits folks in need of food in the Black and Brown LGBTQ Community.

This year free bags of fresh produce were distributed to Brave Space Alliance. We believe poor and marginalized members of the community deserve access to fresh local food.