Village Free Press_090623

Berkeley’s new food truck park seeks tenants

Page 8

As food prices rise, some in Proviso go local

Organizations like the Westchester Food Pantry and Real Foods Cooperative are stressing produce grown closer to home

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Publisher

A new survey commissioned by Bayer, the German pharmaceuticals corporation, and released in July, reported that 76% of Americans “see more empty shelves at grocery stores now vs. early 2022.” The survey also reported that 87% of respondents were concerned about rising grocery prices and 69% about food deserts.

Sparse grocery store shelves and inflated prices are leading more and more Americans to take matters into their own hands. According to a 2022 survey by the National Gardening Association, roughly 41% of U.S. households participated in food gardening in 2021. In February, the New York Times reported an increased demand for “chicks that will grow into egg-laying chickens,” as more households take to backyard chicken-raising.

And there are signs that the grow-your-own movement is taking hold in Proviso Township. In March, Northlake’s City Council approved an or-

Westchester’s ‘business-unfriendly’ video gaming ordinance under review, officials say

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

Westchester Village President Greg Hribal, the former acting village manager who worked for the suburb for 30 years before retiring earlier this year, did not hide his frustration with the village’s current video gaming ordinance at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Aug. 22.

“If I can tell you the number of restau-

rants that have been turned down to come to this town — from White Castle to Bennigan’s,” Hribal said at the meeting. “It just irritates me that we had all these opportunities but the board never got to hear [about them].”

Hribal was referencing the village’s current video gaming ordinance, which requires businesses seeking the liquor license

Shanel Romain

Volunteers prepare for a free food giveaway outside the Fred Hampton Aquatic Center in Maywood during the annual Chairman Fred Hampton Streetz Party on Aug. 30. Read the story on page 3.

President Hribal said the suburb’s current two-year wait for a video gaming license is an automatic deterrent for legitimate businesses who may want to come into town

OWNERSHIP

from Page 1

from

Black-owned and operated newspaper in the country. The first issue on March 16, 1827, announced these nowimmortal words: “We wish to plead our cause. Too long have others spoken us.”

higher wages, and transparency in the economic development process.

board directed staffers to review the current video gaming ordinance, review the gaming ordinances of neighboring suburbs, and to give Jim Novosel, the community development director, the leeway to tell prospective businesses that Westchester’s current ordinance is under review.

Publisher/CEO

Publisher/CEO

required to open a video gaming terminal to be located in the village for at least two years.

“We’re having difficulty [luring] businesses,” Hribal said. “When they call the village, and I’ve been here for years when this happened, businesses are told … there’s a twoyear wait on the license and the phone hangs up … Over the last 25 years, 14 restaurants have closed and only six have opened.”

John Wilk Communication carries this tradition of narrative agency by helping marginalized people who can’t afmassive communications resources craft their own messages.

Through my new firm, I’ve helped a group of 13 minority, licensed cannabis transporters stage a press conference at Thompson Center to announce their lawsuit against the state of Illinois. They the state for its failure to hold accountable large cannabis companies that illegally transporting cannabis products, effectively shutting these minority business owners out of the state’s billion cannabis industry.

As the parent company of VFP, John Wilk fulfills yet another critical aspect of its mission — to help marginalized communities tell their own stories and own their narratives. That’s the same mission that compelled me to found VFP a decade ago. And just as the mission stays the same, much of what makes VFP tick will, too. We’ll serve the same eight-suburb readership, the newspapers will be delivered to the same dropoff points as before and it will still be free for readers.

The difference, though, is that we’ll serve much more news, incorporate more community voices, and do journalism differently than its traditionally been done. Here are some of the changes we’re working on in the coming weeks and months:

Hribal said the automatic two-year wait on a license has been a serious deterrence for legitimate businesses seeking to locate in Westchester. In recent years, businesses like gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants have added video gaming terminals as revenue sources. So, when village officials tell businesses exploring Westchester as a possible location that they’ll have to wait at least two years to get a video gaming license, those businesses look elsewhere, Hribal said.

Village staffers are also seeking to raise the video gaming liquor license fee from $5,000 to $15,000 and exploring ways to toughen local regulations on video gaming terminals and to prevent the dreaded “bait and switch.” But they cautioned that while the ordinance is under review and while they’re exploring those future changes, the existing ordinance remains in effect.

The staff review of the ordinance, Hribal and other village officials hope, will at least allow businesses to continue the dialogue about their plans and present them to the village board before just hanging up the phone.

The creation of a Community Advisory Council (CAC) for VFP comprising trusted members of our nine-suburban readership that will serve as an accountability body for the newspaper.

A digital overhaul, including a major website renovation.

“[No video gaming liquor licenses are] getting approved. At all. Nothing. Zero. Nobody’s opening a gaming establishment, but [now] they’re getting to talk to us,” Hribal said. “It’s all a matter of giving Jim direction to say, ‘Yes the ordinance is under review and we’d like you to come in.’”

Michael Romain

Michael Romain

Chief Operations Officer

Chief Operations Officer

Kamil Brady

Kamil Brady

Creative Director

Creative Director

Patrick Forrest

Patrick Forrest

HOW TO REACH US

HOW TO REACH US

John Wilk Communication

John Wilk Communication

3013 S. Wolf Rd. #278

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Westchester, IL 60154

Westchester, IL 60154

PHONE: (708) 359-9148

Through John Wilk, I also helped bring culturally responsive media literacy curriculum to more than 30 Broadview through 8th-graders, part of a nearly $400,000 Freedom School grant I identilast year.

Seven businesses in Westchester operate 42 video gaming terminals in the village. Each of those businesses has six terminals. According to Illinois Gaming Board data, the total money played at those terminals from January to August was $38 million and $34.7 million of that was won by betters. So far, net wagering activity has totaled $3.3 million. That money has generated $965,695 in state taxes and $166,499 in municipal taxes.

A more robust print circulation that we hope will include more dropoff points for the print newspaper.

The introduction of a subscription model for VFP for readers willing to pay a regular fee to get local news.

Most trustees, even those who voiced opposition to video gaming, agreed that the two-year wait for a gaming license should not be an automatic deterrent to legitimate businesses seeking to locate in Westchester that may want to have video gaming terminals as another source of revenue.

And over the last few months, I’ve used Wilk to help marginalized workers Chicago’s Westside make their case for Amazon owes them better working conditions,

Westchester’s terminals are the second most lucrative in the nine-suburb Village Free Press coverage area. Still, they’re far behind those of Melrose Park, which boasts 32 businesses that operate 179 total video gaming terminals. So far this year, video gaming wagering activity is at around $92 million in Melrose Park.

I’m open to all of your ideas, so please don’t hesitate to email them to me at michael@wearejohnwilk.com. Also, please reach out if you’re interested in applying for a spot on the CAC.

Westchester resident Diane Scott said during public comments that the village needs an updated comprehensive plan to guide economic development and that village officials should be more open about issues affecting residents.

CONTACT:michael@wearejohnwilk. com

Trustee Victoria Vann said she’s talked with Novosel about the need to update the village’s outdated comprehensive plan and that he’s “looking forward to making that happen.”

Most Westchester village board members opposed bringing more businesses that only operate video gaming terminals to town. They raised concerns that some businesses posing as restaurants on their applications get most of their revenue from video gaming. Trustee Nick Steker called the tactic the “bait and switch.”

In addition to the two-year wait, all businesses seeking to operate video gaming terminals must show that the sale of any food and beverages accounts for 60 percent of the establishment’s annual gross sales revenue from all sources. The annual fee for the video gaming liquor license is $5,000.

During the Aug. 22 meeting, the village

But Scott added that until then, “I suggest the board use its resources to connect with residents and engage them in a conversation … You need some serious conversations about the pros and cons of what kind of community we want to live in. That’s what a newsletter and website [are] for.”

Trustee Peter Marzano echoed Scott and said he hopes that public forums are held on the issue of video gaming.

“Transparency’s very important and it will help everybody come to the right decision,” Marzano said.

“This is a very touchy subject and at the end of the day, someone’s going to be disappointed,” Trustee Vann. “You can’t please everybody.”

PHONE: (708) 359-9148 FAX: 708-467-9066

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The Village Free Press is published digitally and in print by John Wilk Communication LLC. The print edition is distributed across Proviso Township at no charge each week.

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Maywood thinks big at Hampton’s 75th birthday celebration

Mayor announces $250K in funding for Hampton House, plans to revitalize Fred Hampton pool

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

The village of Maywood and Black Panther Party Cub Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. commemorated Fred Hampton’s 75th birthday on Aug. 30 by hewing to the famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham’s motto: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”

Those big plans include $2.5 million in state funding for the possible renovation or rebuilding of the Fred Hampton Aquatic Center and $250,000 in state funding to renovate Hampton House, Hampton’s boyhood home at 817 S. 17th Ave. in Maywood, village officials said.

On Wednesday, Hampton Jr. held his annual Chairman Fred Streetz Party, a daylong celebration each year on the elder Hampton’s birthday. Born Aug. 30, 1948, in Summit, Hampton Sr., the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was assassinated by law enforcement authorities on Dec. 4, 1969.

This year’s celebration of Hampton’s life proved particularly monumental, with his son collaborating with village officials to populate Maywood with symbols honoring his father’s legacy.

Hampton Jr. and the community members gathered at the Chairman Fred Hampton Room in Proviso East High School, which was dedicated in 2021. They drove by the Hampton Garden at 1100 S. 11th Ave. And they ended the day with the unveiling of a Fred Hampton memorial fence in Maywood.

This year’s annual Streetz Party also offered glimpses of Hampton Jr.’s big plans for making Maywood the center of his father’s legacy.

Maywood Mayor Nathaniel George Booker announced in front of Hampton House that the state, thanks to Sen. Kimberly Lightford, had approved $250,000 in funding to help realize Hampton Jr.’s dreams of renovating the Hampton House and turning it into a museum.

The announcement came moments before Hampton Jr. unveiled the official placard

designating Hampton House a local historic landmark, a move that Maywood’s village board approved last year. Booker said the local designation is the first step in a push to get Hampton House designated a national landmark.

Village officials have also explored rebuilding the Fred Hampton Aquatic Center at 200 S. 3rd Ave. in Maywood, which hasn’t been open since 2018, when record-setting subzero temperatures resulted in holes in the pool’s concrete base. The West Cook YMCA in Oak Park had been operating and maintaining the pool until then.

At a Maywood village board meeting on Aug. 8, Hampton Jr. said the pool has “political significance,” since his father fought for young Blacks to swim and gather at public recreational facilities that were racially segregated. According to a biographer, Hampton Sr. was only a teenager when he would “gather the neighborhood children that wanted to swim and travel to Brookfield.”

Hampton’s mother, Iberia, said Hampton would “ride the buses every morning to Brookfield with the kids so they could swim there. Sometimes, he would take two trips.” Hampton himself, however, never swam, Iberia said.

In 1970, several months after his assassination in Chicago, the Maywood village board voted 3-3 on a motion to name the suburb’s new swimming pool after Hampton. The board vote was drawn along racially partisan lines. The three Black trustees, channeling most of the suburb’s Black residents, voted in favor of the motion. The three white trustees, channeling many (if not most) of the village’s white residents, voted against it. The mayor at the time, Leonard V. Chabala, who was white, voted with the Black trustees.

According to a 1970 Chicago Tribune article, someone shouted at the young mayor after the vote: “You’ll never be reelected.” “Let’s go break windows,” yelled another person.

“This pool is here because Maywood didn’t have a swimming pool where Blacks could go,” said Bill Hampton, Fred Hampton’s older brother, at a grand reopening of the swimming pool in 2015. “Fred was saying that we should have a pool right here in our community like other suburbs do.”

At the Aug. 8 board meeting, Mayor Booker said that Maywood had been awarded $2.5 million by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to conduct a feasibility study on the 18 acres of green space on which the Hampton pool facility sits.

Fred Hampton Jr.’s mother, Akua Njeri, is overcome with emotion during the Aug. 30 unveiling ceremony of the placard designating Hampton House a local historic landmark.

BBlack Panther Party Cub Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. stands in front of a historic landmark placard on the childhood home of his father, Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton on Aug. 30. The village of Maywood designated the house a historic landmark last year.

“Whether it’s a renovation, new, an indoor pool, whatever it might be, will come out of that $2.5 million grant,” Booker said.

During the unveiling ceremony of the historic landmark placard on Wednesday, Hampton Jr. hinted at another big plan when he wished a young boy in the crowd a happy

birthday. The boy, Hampton Jr. said, told him that Irving Middle School, the school across the street from Hampton House where a young Fred Hampton attended, should be named after the slain human rights leader.

“From the mouth of babes,” Hampton Jr. said.

Shanel Romain

Shanel Romain

The 41st Annual Taste of Melrose Park featured dozens of food vendors, fun rides, craftspeople selling items like handmade embroideries and thousands of attendees. The Taste ran from Sept. 1 through Sept. 3. See the story and more photos online at vfpress.news.

Michael Romain

‘State of the Unions’ report shows increased labor organizing activity

By PETER HANCOCK Capital News Illinois

A new report shows a surge in efforts to organize labor unions in workplaces throughout the state, while overall public approval of labor unions nationally is the highest in nearly six decades.

In 2022, there were 72 successful petitions to organize labor unions in Illinois, representing 9,600 new unionized workers, the highest singleyear numbers at any point in the last decade.

That’s according to The State of the Unions 2023, an annual report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a think tank with strong ties to organized labor, and the Center for Middle Class Revival at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign.

After decades of declining union membership and declining unionization rates, U of I’s Robert Bruno, a coauthor of the report, said those numbers may signal a resurgence in the labor movement.

“That’s kind of a leading indicator of an upsurge, of growth in the movement,” Bruno said in an interview. “And if you look at where you’re seeing organizing happening – in a lot of growth sectors with larger numbers of employees – then you see the kinds of conditions for increasing the actual density of the labor movement.”

While the rate of unionized workers in Illinois had increased in 2020 – followed by a boost of nearly 16,000 new unionized workers the following year – the state saw declines in both metrics in the past year, according to the report. That continued the downward trend in unionization in the last decade. In 2022, there were 734,430 unionized workers in Illinois, which represented 13.1 percent of the state’s total workforce.

The report attributes that to a shift in the state’s economy away from manufacturing and other unionized sectors toward more service- and knowledge-based industries with low unionization rates. It also cites a large number of vacancies in federal, state and local government positions, which make up the bulk of union membership.

The authors also attribute some of that to the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case, Janus v. the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which struck down an Illinois law that required public employees who chose not to join the union representing their shop to nevertheless pay a portion of their union dues known as “fair share” or “agency fees.” Those fees covered a portion of the union’s costs for collective bargaining.

“State and local government vacancies increased 78 percent following Janus as wages in the public sector failed to keep pace with those in the private sector,” said ILEPI’s Frank Manzo IV, the other coauthor of the report. “And in Illinois, unfilled positions at public school districts rose 164 percent. And Illinois also had thousands of vacant state local government jobs and in 2022 … So it’s the labor shortage that’s in part caused by the Janus decision because workers are dissatisfied with pay in the public sector.”

Statewide, public sector union membership has fallen by about 24,000, or 3.3 percent, since the Janus decision and now averages around 334,000.

Still, the report notes, Illinois’ unionization rate of 13.1 percent of its workforce is significantly higher than the national average of 10.1 percent. Nationwide, however, total union membership grew in 2022 to nearly 14.3 million workers, the first time that has happened since 2017.

The report cites an August 2022 Gallup poll that found 71 percent of Americans say they approve of labor unions, up from 68 percent the year before and the highest union approval rating Gallup had recorded since 1965.

The demographics of union membership have also been changing, with younger workers aged 25-34 making up a larger share of the total. Since 2019, that age group saw a 2.3 percentage point increase in unionization. By contrast, there were declines in unionization among workers aged 35-44 and older workers over 65.

Unionization rates were highest among people with master’s degrees but lowest among people with less than a high school diploma as well as people with professional or doctorate degrees.

The top four industries by unionization rates were public administration, construction, transportation and utilities, and the combined educational and health services industry.

The report notes that the manufacturing workforce, historically a leader in industrial unionization, is now only 8.8 percent organized in Illinois.

CONTACT: phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com

Last year, 72 new unions representing 9,600 newly unionized workers formed in Illinois, but the rising numbers haven’t appeared to reverse labor’s historic downward trend

State to put $20 million toward grants for grocers, research into food insecurity

A bill Pritzker signed in August establishes a program that distributes $20 million for grants and technical assistance for grocery stores

By ANDREW ADAMS  Capitol News Illinois

Communities across Illinois that lack access to nearby stores that sell highquality food may soon see that change.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Aug. 18 signed a bill that sets up a program to distribute $20 million for grants and technical assistance for grocery stores, and funding research into food insecurity.

The grants will go to grocery stores that are independently owned, including forprofit and nonprofit organizations, co-ops and grocery stores owned by units of local government.

The program’s proponents say supporting grocers with state funds will be a boon for residents and struggling local economies.

“When our residents struggle to keep a

roof over their head, can’t put food on the table, or have to choose between paying for basic medical care and keeping the lights on – that’s a failure of the system,” Pritzker said in an Aug. 18 news release.

According to 2021 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at least 3 million Illinois residents live in food deserts as defined in the new law, although the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity can designate additional areas as food deserts.

Data collected this spring by the U.S. Census Bureau also revealed that food insecurity affects multiracial, Hispanic and Black households at higher rates than white households.

Food deserts, as defined in a proposal moving through the General Assembly, can be found in nearly every part of the state. Just under 3.3 million Illinoisans live in a census tract that meets this definition.

Officials declined to announce a specific timeline for when the grants will become available but said that updates would be published on the DCEO website when about the grant application process is finalized.

“We’re moving as fast as we can be-

National Library Card Sign Up Month!

1.Get a NEW library card at your home library, along with your library passport.

2.Take your passport to each library & get a stamp.

3.Turn in your passport at your home library to be entered into a drawing to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Thank you to PROVISO TOWNSHIP for sponsoring the 2023 Passport to Proviso challenge.

The former Maywood Market, located at 615 S. 5th Ave. in Maywood, which closed in 2011. Living Fresh Market in Forest Park wants to open a second location at the site, a project that might qualify for the new state grant.

Eight Proviso Businesses Get Share Of Nearly $400K In State Funds

Eight restaurants and hotels in Proviso Township received nearly $400,000 from the state’s Back 2 Business grant program. Restaurants, hotels and creative arts businesses in Illinois that have experienced financial downturns since the pandemic were eligible for the $175 million grant funding.

The Best Western Hillside, 4400 Frontage Rd. in Hillside, got $207,305 — the largest share of grant funding among Proviso businesses. Other Proviso businesses that received funding include:

• Travel Inn, 1150 Roosevelt Rd. in Broadview | $42,461

• Four Points, 2222 Enterprise Dr. in Westchester | $28,686

• Chicago’s Chicken Shack, 1825 Roosevelt Rd. in Broadview | $5,000

• Jimmy’s Place, 7411 W. Madison St. in Forest Park | $50,000

• Just Like Mama’s Catering, a homebased business in Maywood | $5,000

• Shree Laxmi Restaurants, 5201 St Charles Rd. in Berkeley | $35,000

• Meal of the Day Cafe, 1701 S. 1st Ave. in Maywood | $5,000

“These grants are about putting money directly into our community, helping local businesses recover from the lingering challenges of COVID-19, and keeping people on the job,” said Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (7th), who announced the grant recipients in late August.

“The work we’re doing to rebuild Illinois’ fiscal house is so meaningful because a stronger Illinois can work with our local businesses to meet their needs, hire, and strengthen our communities.”

After Opening New Food Truck Park, Berkeley Looks For Vendors

On Aug. 15, Berkeley village officials held a ribbon-cutting for the new Corner Food Park at 5544 St. Charles Rd. Officials said the new park offers space for up to nine food trucks. So far, the park has two food truck tenants: Tacos El Amigazo and The Food Dude. Village officials said they’re currently seeking other food truck vendors.

Anyone interested can visit berkeley.il.us/ thecorner.

According to a village FAQ, the village issues licenses through four-month agreements that cost $500 per month. Officials said the Corner Food Park has RV electrical pedestals for each truck vendor and picnic tables for patrons who want to eat their food truck fare at the park. The village maintains the site, which used to be a vacant lot.

“The Corner aims to offer a variety of foods with little to no duplication so that everyone gets an opportunity to thrive,” officials explained. “As an incubator project, The Corner offers food truck operators a high-profile location along St. Charles Rd. to test the market or corner it.”

Food trucks that obtain licenses to operate at the park are also allowed to serve their food at Village-sponsored events at no additional charge, Berkeley officials said.

Bellwood Aldi Shows Off New Look After June Opening

Shoppers at the Bellwood Aldi, 400 Mannheim Rd., may have noticed a few changes at the newly remodeled store. Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey told Village Free Press last year that the Aldi was slated for about $1.6 million in improvements.

The 12,000-square-foot store, one of 150 in the Chicago area, reopened on June 29 and now features larger aisles, a wine and beer section, and a greater variety of food products.

“We are extremely pleased that we were able to work with Aldi to keep them in Bellwood,” explained Peter Tsiolis, Bellwood’s economic development director, in the village’s monthly newsletter. “Having a fullservice supermarket like Aldi commit to the residents is a testament to the ability of Mayor Harvey and businesses to work together for the good of the village.”

According to Chicago Business Journal, Aldi Inc. has remodeled some stores to increase foot traffic. The company opened a

new store in North Riverside in January. Heather McCarthy, Aldi’s divisional vice president, told Chicago Business Journal that the company is “remodeling our stores to ensure the design and experience match the high quality of our products,” McCarthy said Aldi is opening 120 new stores this year alone. At the time of the Business Journal interview, the company had opened “more than 60 stores nationwide,” she said.

New Permeable Parking Lot At Broadview Village Hall Completed

A $450,000 permeable pavement parking lot at Broadview Village Hall, 2350 S. 25th Ave., is completed. According to previous Village Free Press reporting, the new parking lot replaces the previous asphalt parking lot. Village officials estimated the new parking lot would divert 60,000 gallons of stormwater from the combined stormwater sewer system during heavy rains.

regular meeting on Aug. 8.

Westchester Police Chief Daniel Babich told board members in July that while it is typically difficult for police to catch people in the act of launching illegal fireworks, sometimes they find groups setting up rockets. Babich said one person fined by police for illegal fireworks usage thought the $250 fine was “a joke.”

Village officials said they hope the increased fine will be a deterrent to the use of fireworks, which while popular are illegal in Illinois.

Hillside To Hold Zoning Hearing On Sept. 12 For Prospective Salon Owners

The Hillside Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on Sept. 12, 7 p.m., at the Village of Hillside Municipal Complex Courtroom, 425 Hillside Ave., to consider a petition submitted by two women who want to operate a salon/barbershop at 4219 Butterfield Rd. The area is zoned M-2 industrial, so the women must get a special use permit from the village to set up shop.

“The project to alleviate [stormwater] collection in the principal parking lot of Village Hall represents a piece of Broadview’s broader ‘green agenda,’” Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson told Village Free Press. “Broadview aims to invest in infrastructure projects that address the impact of climate change, such as more powerful storms, that affect the daily lives of Broadview residents.”

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) provided $300,000 in funding for the parking lot while local food products supplier Mullins Foods Products, 2200 S. 25th Ave. in Broadview, gave $100,000.

Westchester Raises Fireworks Fines By 200%

Anyone caught launching fireworks in Westchester must now pay a $750 fine, up from $250 – a 200% increase. The Westchester village board approved the increase at a

During a regular meeting on Aug. 28, the Hillside village board unanimously approved a motion to grant a special use permit to Tania Jimenez, a Westchester woman doing business as TEJ SKN. Jimenez plans to open a cosmetology and waxing business at 4747 Charles St. in Hillside.

After

Terminating Business Moratorium, Maywood Board Says No More Video Gaming Licenses

During a meeting on July 11, the Maywood village board voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance that terminates the 180-day moratorium on new barbershops, hair salons, nail shops, live music permits, pop-up retail stores, special events spaces, tobacco shops and fast food restaurants.

The moratorium, which began Dec. 6, 2022, was extended for 45 days to July 19.

The moratorium effectively ended on July 31. During that board meeting, the village board also voted unanimously on an ordinance that stopped the issuance of new liquor licenses to video gaming bistro operators.

The only two video gaming bistros in Maywood, Lacey’s Place and Lucky Bernie’s, can continue operating and renewing their licenses, as long as they’re in good standing with village regulations.

To have your event listed on next week’s community calender bit.ly/vfpcommunity-calendar

GRANT Food Insecurity

from page 7

cause we know there’s a need across the state,” Pritzker said at an Aug. 18 news conference.

One of the bill’s chief sponsors, fresh -

LOCAL FOOD Freshly Affordable

from page 1

dinance that allows residents to keep chickens in their backyards. On Sept. 1, the Westchester Food Pantry put out a request to community members on Facebook for homegrown produce, preferably vegetables and fruit free of pesticides and dirt.

The focus on locally grown food was also apparent during a conversation at a farmstand under the gazebo at the Maywood Park District, 921 S. 9th Ave. in Maywood, on Aug. 31.

“Have you seen the pumpkins in the garden? There are black and orange pumpkins in there,” Maywood Park District Director Lonette Hall said to Maywood gardening enthusiast Loretta Brown. Hall pointed to the Park District’s raised-bed garden several hundred feet away.

“Our pumpkins are really little,” Brown said, referencing the pumpkins grown at yet another garden in the village, the Giving Garden on Madison Street and Greenwood Avenue.

“No, ours aren’t little,” Hall responded. “We’ve also got big cabbages in there, too.”

Perhaps more than anyone, Brown embodies Proviso’s burgeoning garden movement. She’s the cofounder of Proviso Partners for Health (PP4H), an initiative that works with community organizations to address food insecurity, economic justice, and wellness, among other areas. PP4H started the Giving Garden nearly 10 years ago, and sponsors the Real Foods Collective, the initiative that hosts the Thursday farmstands.

Before that, Brown organized annual daylong cleanups in Maywood called Village Pride, Village Wide. The village government now organizes the initiative. Each year, volunteers pick up trash and plant flowers across the village. Last month, members of PP4H and the Real Foods Collective renamed the Maywood Giving Garden after Brown.

Brown said 14 gardeners are members of

man state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, DArlington Heights, said in an interview with Capitol News Illinois that she also views the bill as a step toward reducing violence.

“When there’s a lack of investment in communities, that’s when you start to see incidents of violence rise,” Canty said.

She also noted that she hopes to revisit food availability through further legisla -

tion or other state programs.

“Some of the things we’ve talked about are looking at this from a public health perspective,” Canty said. “On the business side of things, we’re looking at our licensing structures.”

While the Grocery Initiative originated among Democrats, it passed the Senate unanimously in May, something Pritzker credited to Sen. Dale Fowler, R-Harris-

burg. Fowler noted that areas of his rural district struggle with food access.

“An entire county in the 59th district that I represent does not have one single grocery store,” Fowler said.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide.

Fresh zucchini, lettuce, onions and peppers are on display at the Real Foods Collective farmstand, which happens under the gazebo at the Maywood Park District every Thursday through September. The farmstand is run by people like Myeshia Owten, a project coordinator for the Real Foods Collective.

the Real Foods Collective. She said most of the farmstand produce comes from Windy City Harvest, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s food education and employment program that grows more than 100,000 pounds of produce yearly on over 13 farms, according to the Botanic Garden’s website.

Each Thursday, a certified nutritionist is on-site to prepare meals made from the affordable produce sold at the farmstand.

Celene Herrera, the Collective’s community outreach coordinator, said the Collective has plans for the farmstand to take SNAP cards.

Brown said it’s possible the farmstand could

move indoors after its last outdoor version takes place on Sept. 28.

Kenquita Benson, a gardener and the program manager for the Real Foods Collective, said she joined the Collective to give back

to the community. She sells her homemade baked goods, including strawberry crunch cake, layered cakes and bundt cakes, at the farmstand each week.

Food Aid Festival raises funds for nonprofits

Benson, a former respiratory practitioner at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, hopes to start a shared kitchen for other small business owners looking to get off the ground.

The annual Food Aid Festival, held Aug. 26 and Aug. 27 at Exiting Brewing Strategy in Forest Park and Scoville Park in Oak Park, raised $10,841 for six area nonprofits and initiatives.

The Festival, which featured music acts like The Heavy Sounds and The Shams Band, raised funds for the Unity Fridges initiative started by Oak Park activist Anthony Clark, Oak Park nonprofit Beyond Hunger, the Austin Eats Initiative in Chicago, A House in Austin in Chicago, the Proviso-wide nonprofit Best of Proviso Township and the Westchester Food Pantry.

“Food Aid’s mission is to eliminate individuals and their families from experiencing hunger,” the organization’s website explains.

“I love doing this, I love helping the community,” she said. “It feels more like passion — not work.”

To learn more about the Real Foods Collective

Michael Romain