The corner of Harrison and Halsted streets doesn’t feel very rural, with traffic buzzing by the busy intersection and the Willis Tower looming in the background. But that will soon change.
Students Dorrian Neeley and Lashawn Evans, both in the undergraduate Human Development and Learning program in the College of Education, have developed UIC’s first urban garden at the intersection, aiming to address issues of sustainability and food security in low-income Chicago communities.
“Growing up in Chicago, we both know what living off the corner store can do for you,” Neeley said. “We think we can influence the community starting with this garden and hopefully expanding, so people can have the ability to feed themselves.”
Their idea blossomed in the Child and Youth Policies in Urban America course (ED 135), taught by Chris Miller, assistant clinical professor of educational policy studies. Neeley and Evans sought to study sustainable food systems as an independent project, a plan embraced by Miller and Alfred Tatum, dean of the College of Education.
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