Pandemic Response Reinforcement Resilience

Acknowledging traditional stewards

Chicago is part of the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Odawa, Anishinabeg, and Potawatomi nations. Many other tribes—such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Meskwaki, and Menominee—also called this area home. The land is a site of trade, gathering and healing for countless other Native nations throughout time immemorial. The Chicago Region Food System Fund includes other land stewarded by the Oneida, Lakota, Kickapoo, and Peoria people who have protected the land and waters of this region in the past and present. We honor tribal nations and their treaty rights which, in this region, affirm food sovereignty through traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. 

Adapting to strengthen resilience in the food system

The pandemic has taught us a lot. A resilient food system is resilient because people, land, and communities are able to adapt to changing conditions, including major shocks, in ways that minimize immediate losses and strengthen the capacity for everyone to thrive. Food system nonprofits and businesses are moving quickly based on that experience, building on assets, and prototyping new ways of doing things in this changed context. It’s a dynamic moment. The CRFSF team wants to support and accelerate that dynamism as much as possible, both in the grants we make and how we partner to capture learning with a commitment to continual improvement.

Diverse approaches, hopeful future

Some see resilience in the context of climate change. Others in the ability to live through and transform trauma. Still others see it as food sovereignty rooted in traditional ecological knowledge as practiced by indigenous communities. Or in locally owned and well-integrated food businesses. No one approach can define and ensure resilience—but together the region’s vibrant web of rural, urban, and peri-urban food communities can build a resilient, racially and economically just future