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FRONT RUNNER
Two women erect a Victory
Gardens emblem on their plot in
the garden at Gladys and
Leamington Avenues in Chicago’s
Austin community in May 1943.
GARDENING FOR GOOD
During the Second World War, to help prevent food shortages, the US government encouraged citizens to grow their own fresh produce. Nearly 90 percent of
Chicagoans had never gardened before, but in 1943, the victory garden movement bloomed across the nation—and Chicagoans led the way, planting an
estimated 1,500 community gardens.
“Chicago was really organized,” says LaManda Joy, a master gardener who
started the victory garden–inspired Peterson Garden Project in 2010 to plant popup gardens on the city’s North Side. It was during WWII, notes Joy, that the city
began offering educational programs while increasing media attention with
newspaper articles and recorded radio broadcasts to promote urban gardening.
Decades later, Joy wanted to preserve the same movement. “I kept driving by this
empty lot on Peterson and Campbell in West Ridge, and I joked that I developed
a medical condition called ‘lot lust,’ where I see an empty lot and I want to put a
garden there.” Upon discovering a photo of the same lot serving as a WWII victory garden, the Budlong Woods resident realized she wanted to use the space to
create her first teaching garden. “People are really excited to build gardens,”
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enthuses Joy. “It’s a community project. We do it together.”
Now in its sixth season, the Peterson Garden Project works with neighbors,
property owners, aldermen, and community centers. To date, it has created eight
pop-up victory gardens comprising 1,039 plots and boasts 1,000 volunteers and
almost 4,000 gardeners (some of whom, Joy notes, have assumed the title of
“block captains,” as victory gardeners did during WWII). The nonprofit organization has also partnered with Grewbie 101, which teaches gardening basics;
Senior/Senior, which connects senior citizens with high school seniors; and cooking classes on everything from Southern Indian cuisine to seasonal soups.
Like the victory gardens that offered platforms to support the war effort, Joy
values the dialogue the Peterson Garden Project continues to provide for the
community. “Today, a lot of people are afraid of our food system,” she says.
“They are worried about contamination, or they’re worried about GMOs
[genetically modified organisms]. To me, the ability to use a piece of land and
gather people together to solve their problems is a direct legacy of what happened 72 years ago.” MA
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM
IN WORLD WAR II-ERA CHICAGO, LOCAL RESIDENTS SUPPORTED THE NATION’S EFFORTS BY PLANTING VICTORY
GARDENS AROUND THE CITY, INSPIRING A MOVEMENT THAT LIVES ON TODAY. BY KATINA BENIARIS