Chicagoland Food Sovereignty Coalition (CFSC)

What is the Chicago Food Sovereignty Coalition? CFSC is a coalition of autonomous mutual aid groups working to reimagine a resilient, sustainable and equitable local food system based on food sovereignty. The pandemic has vividly revealed how broken the national, regional and local food systems are. These systems are predicated on over-industrialized foods, waste, profit and food apartheid. These brutal and fragile systems are not sustainable and for too long have been managed by power brokers and policy makers, instead of everyday people, many who don’t have access to healthy and nutritious food. We are working to build a food system rooted in radical love rather than profit, unlocking abundance for all people. We operate under the fiscal sponsorship of the Hack Club, which is a 501C-3 committed to growing the solidarity economy.

How did this all start?

A precursor of this coalition was sparked by work the Brave Space Alliance was doing. Their comrades were focused on food security via their mutual aid initiative. At first, some mutual aid groups from the south and west sides of Chicago were meeting to talk about piloting some food access programs to those who had the least opportunity. In the fall of 2020, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) conducted a survey to determine what was needed to supplant or replace the problematic USDA “Farmers to Families” box program that so many mutual aid groups, allies and nonprofits were using to get more food to people who desperately needed it. CFPAC’s findings showed that the amount of capital needed to support a similar program was untenable and thus, the program was effectively a band aid to a local food system that urgently needed to be reimagined and restructured. From that survey, there were many discussions about how best to support communities with great food access needs both equitably and sustainably. Many comrades from the CFSC were involved in those meetings, advocating for more resources in order to equitably distribute food to people. This led to some anonymous funders wanting to donate to help the cause.

On December 14, 2020, the Chicagoland mutual aid community rallied as many comrades as possible to meet and decide whether to accept a $120,000 anonymous donation for “mutual aid organizations”. This effectively created what we now call the Chicagoland Food Sovereignty Coalition (CFSC). We have since identified collective needs for sources of food and cold storage. CFSC groups continued to participate in the USDA “Farmers to Families” program, while working to secure food sources and cold storage. We also worked to supplement USDA food boxes with healthy foods through food rescue efforts. When it was announced that the USDA program would end, we decided to lean into food rescue efforts as the primary means of procuring food for our communities. This entails sharing healthy food that would otherwise be wasted from capitalist supply chains. We have continued to share that abundance with our communities. 

Around this same time, some comrades from the CFSC connected with Professor Howard Rosing at DePaul University through some of the CFPAC meetings and worked with his graduate cohort on a mapping project they initiated to exhaustively locate all of the cold storage in the Chicagoland area. This proved to be very beneficial for the mutual aid community, as it allowed us to focus on the potential cold storage needed to create a food hub for our food rescue efforts. Additionally, the mapping project highlighted some of the grocery stores and distributors that might be able to donate to our food rescue efforts. 

In April of 2021, CFSC received a grant award from the Chicago Region Food System Fund (CRFSF) in partnership with Seven Generations Ahead (SGA) and the Wasted Food Action Alliance (WFAA). The focus of this round of grants from the CRFSF was specifically to create and bolster resilient food systems. The focus of our application was to create a food rescue hub and communication system.

On June 16, 2021, CFSC started renting a 1,000 square foot space in a cold storage warehouse in West Pilsen thanks to the folks at The Urban Canopy. Finally securing some cold storage space accelerated and expanded our food rescue efforts. At the end of 2021, we opened another food rescue hub activated in Hermosa. 

Fast forward to 2024, as we approach our 4th year in community, we continue to grow and learn, we want to offer gratitude to all those who have supported CFSC, especially our neighbors in our beautiful communities. While we continue to procure resources with little to no capital, we still need the support of more volunteers and funders who wish to reimagine this local food system in Chicago. Together, we can amplify the most marginalized of us, allowing them to have a voice and choice in this process. 

What neighborhoods are involved?

Chicago - Roseland, Pullman, Morgan Park, Mt Greenwood, Beverly, Chatham, Auburn Gresham, Grand Crossing, Englewood, South Shore, Woodlawn, Washington Park, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Bronzeville, Back of the Yards, Pilsen, Little Village, North Lawndale, Garfield Park, Austin, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Ukrainian Village, West Town, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Hermosa, Belmont Cragin, Avondale, Irving Park, Portage Park, Albany Park, Buena Park, Uptown, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Edgewater, Rogers Park, Mayfair

Cook County - Calumet City, South Chicago Heights, Dolton, Harvey, Markham

What are your community agreements?

These are our community shared agreements and principles (link). We value horizontal relationships. We seek to build a world without hierarchy, starting with our own coalition. We do not work with cops, white supremacists, or misogynists and attempt to root out learned hierarchical tendencies in ourselves and our groups. We follow the Seeds of Change Spokes Council model (link) and Food Not Bombs flow chart (link) to create consensus.

Where does funding come from?

Our funding comes from beautiful people like yourself and sometimes from grants or larger donors. We can always use funds to support this work. If you’d like to donate funds please use our use this link from our fiscal sponsor, Hack Club. We encourage coalition groups working in wealthier and more advantaged communities to share funds across the coalition by donating to CFSC via the Open Collective link.

How can my group join the coalition?

The coalition and its resources are open to any groups affirming our community agreements and practicing mutual aid.

The first step to joining the coalition is to set up a one-on-one meeting with a current coalition member. You can do so via our “Contact Us” tab. If they agree that your group’s values align with our community agreements, then we will find a time to meet so you can share a little bit about your group. Finally, we send membership requests to the Spokes Council for final approval.

We encourage coalition groups to join our meetings as much as possible. We also ask coalition groups to directly support and amplify CFSC’s calls to action. Meetings are the primary way we build community and collaborate across groups. We recognize that our meetings will present a barrier to some groups who might not have the time, funds or access to technology. We will work with said groups to overcome those barriers.