DeKalb County Community Gardens to ‘build bridge’ for resources with food hub

DeKALB – DeKalb will soon have a community food hub that organizers say will bring much-needed food, health care, child care and economic resources to the Annie Glidden North neighborhood.

DeKalb County Community Gardens is planning to build a Community Food, Health and Education Center. The center, nicknamed the DeKalb Community Food Hub, will be the first of its kind in northern Illinois.

An update on the plan was presented to the public during a recent presentation at the DeKalb Public Library on community-based food systems provided by Ken Meter, author of “Building Community Food Webs.”

The Community Food, Health and Education Center will be located at 535 N. Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb, on land provided by Northern Illinois University. According to project plans, the food hub will “address the root causes of poverty and bring economic vitality that will transform the Annie Glidden North neighborhood.”

Project Director Dan Kenney, who founded the community gardens nonprofit and retired as executive director last year, said the food hub will be about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet in separate buildings on a 3-acre site with parking. Greenhouses, a café and garden center are planned for one building, with child care and a health clinic featuring physical, mental and dental health care in another building.

“The food hub will be a bridge between DeKalb and the Annie Glidden North neighborhood, as well as a bridge between NIU and the community,” Kenney said.

Although the project is still in its planning stage, developers said the food hub will cost an estimated $8 to $10 million. DCCG already has raised $1 million, started writing grants and soon will begin a capital campaign and hold fundraising events. Donations can be made online on DCCG’s website or on Give DeKalb County, the 24-hour online giving day on May 5.

Kenney said DCCG is hoping to break ground on the project in 2023 and open in 2024.

DCCG is looking for community feedback and involvement in the project as it is being planned. For information about the Community Food, Health and Education Center or to contact DCCG, visit dekalbgardens.org.

What will happen at the hub?

DCCG Executive Director Heather Edwards described the food hub as the nonprofit organization’s biggest project to date.

“We’re moving forward with the food hub, talking to architects and figuring out the flow and square footage of each part of the facility,” Edwards said. “It will have many different aspects and facets: education, providing food, health care, training, entrepreneurial business start-ups and a community center. We are trying to meet the needs of the community with the facility, because there is definitely a need for it.”

According project plans, the center will address “the substantial need to bring fresh food into an area defined as a food desert with high unemployment and low income” by offering community resources and programs.” The space also will offer programming related to emergency food access, cooking and gardening, civic engagement and experiential education.

At the food hub, DCCG plans to collaborate with the Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability, as well as Northern Illinois University and the Illinois Innovation Network, a group of research centers with a mission to drive economic growth in Illinois and address global issues in partnership with local businesses, farmers and communities. NIU joined the network in 2018.

Additional plans for the food hub include an urban farm over about an acre of outdoor garden space, as well as three greenhouses with a total growing space of about 10,000 square feet. The greenhouses will allow fresh food to grow year-round using soil, hydroponics and aquaponics, according to project plans.

The location also will feature a regional food hub with a packing and warehouse area to connect regional growers to markets and a 2,500-square-foot shared use commercial kitchen. The kitchen plans to offer job training, instruction and demonstration for preparing and preserving food.

To address what organizers said was the need for fresh food on DeKalb’s north side, the food hub will have a 10,000-square-foot market that will sell locally sourced food items. The market also will offer local food donations. The space also will include a farm-to-table restaurant that can seat 100 diners and provide meals on a pay-as-you-are-able basis.

Other organizations also are involved, according to project plans, including BASICS DeKalb County, the Huskie Food Pantry and the DeKalb Public Library, which plans to have a satellite location on the hub’s campus.

The food hub also will have a multi-purpose room that will be a community gathering space for classes, events and weddings.

To be eco-friendly, the food hub will have solar panels, south-facing windows and a permeable porous parking lot that will allow water to collect in an underground catchment system to assist in watering the gardens and greenhouses.

“The goal is to have everyone in the community working, living and utilizing the space side-by-side,” Kenney said. “It’s going to be a bridge-builder and a game-changer for DeKalb County.”