Cooking Matters, a project of IMCHC, has recently entered into a very exciting partnership with the Urban Agriculture Program, an initiative of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (PACHS) in Humboldt Park. The Urban Agriculture Initiative was developed in response to the findings from a large-scale community survey conducted by the Sinai Urban Health Institute, (http://www.suhichicago.org/files/publications/K.pdf) which found that a vast majority of Humboldt Park residents were either food insecure or did not have access to affordable, quality fresh produce, making Humboldt Park a fresh produce desert.  To address this problem in Humboldt Park, the PRCC and PACHS created this initiative, which includes several community gardens, a rooftop greenhouse, fresh produce baskets, a farmers market, and an integrated urban agricultural education program that incorporates math, science, and various other subjects into the curriculum. The Urban Agriculture Program seeks to teach at-risk, underserved, minority adolescents about sustainability based on economics.  According to José E. López (PRCC Executive Director), teens are able to develop and live the three aspects of a sustainable economic system; production, distribution, and consumption. Production takes place in the various community gardens as well as the rooftop greenhouse.  These products are then distributed through the farmer's market and fresh market baskets (currently about 30% of what is distributed comes from the program but this number is expected to jump to 70% by the end of harvest season). More recently, the partnership with Cooking Matters allow for teens to be involved in consumption. 

Cooking Matters is funded through Share Our Strengths and the Pritzker Family Foundation and the Urban Agriculture Summer Program is funded through Illinois Neighborhood Recovery Initiative

in partnership with Chicago Commons and The Chicago Community Trust. This partnership helps to put into practice what the teens have learned through the urban agriculture curriculum.

  Classes are hosted weekly at the Diabetes Empowerment Center of Humboldt Park.  Each week Cooking Matters staff goes to the farmer's market and garden to pick up the produce that was harvested.  Recipes are decided based upon what is available that week. The produce has included tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, onions, garlic, cilantro, oregano, jalapeno, green and red peppers, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, broccoli, radishes, beets, and lettuce, as well as native Puerto Rican spices such as recao (a long leafy herb) and ajies dulces (Puerto Rican sweet peppers). In addition to what is available from the gardens, CM staff is able to get leftover produce such as bananas, avocados, mangoes, oranges, and apples from the local farmer's market.

The media/outreach team at Centro Sin Fronteras, as well as the Batey Urbano and Northeastern Illinois University Que Ondee Sola Team has been receiving website training from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center's Board Secretary, Alejandro Luis Molina. 

We started with little knowledge about the various software and computer techniques needed in creating an effective website for our organization. However, we have learned that tech novices like ourselves can create and use the internet tools we need, and for free (mostly)! We participate in weekly two hour meetings where we learned proper maintenance habits, photo sizing and editing, formatting, and general organization of website content. The knowledge we have gained has been invaluable and we look forward to working with the PRCC in the future as well as to launching our new website in the near future. 

A small crowd of community residents and leaders gathered at IPRAC on Tuesday, August 6th for a private screening of a film titled "Between Western and California". The film was directed by Nicholas Medina and written and produced by Darrell Robbins. "Between Western and California" is about a young Puerto Rican artist struggling with his identity and his beliefs of regarding his Humboldt Park community in Chicago. He makes a discovery about loyalty, ambition, preservation and what it means to exist between Western and California. After the film, the director and producer engaged the audience in a discussion about the film.  

The Paseo Boricua Farmers Market will be open every Friday and Saturday this summer. Through this initiative, the PRCC seeks to provide a place for Humboldt Park residents to acquire fresh produce.

Locally grown chemically free produce grown by our very own Humboldt Park youth is available!

The Farmer's Market takes places on Fridays from 2pm-7pm and Saturdays from 10am-3pm at 2628 W. Division St.

Esta invitación es de la exposición colectiva sobre don Pedro Albizu Campos que se está llevando a cabo en fechas diferentes, en distintos lugares del país. Ya se dió en San Juan, hay otra que aún permanece en Vieques, una que se está trabajando para Ponce y la de Patillas-Albizu Campos la conciencia de su pueblo-   dedicada a Oscar López Rivera y cuya apertura será este próximo viernes, 9 de septiembre. El Comité Pro-Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico sometió la obra del compañero Oscar -La Esperanza- que es parte de nuestra colección y hemos estado colaborando con la Fundación Casa Albizu. El catálogo lleva como portada el arte de la obra de Oscar. Pueden bajar copia del catálogo aqui­.

Integrantes de la XXII Brigada Juan Rius Rivera lograron llegar hasta la cumbre más alta de Cuba para exigir la libertad de los presos políticos puertorriqueños y de los cuatro héroes antiterroristas cubanos prisioneros en EE.UU.; demandar el cese del bloqueo estadounidense a Cuba, y expresar su solidaridad con los jóvenes y los trabajadores de todo el mundo.

La caminata de más de 10 km, subiendo y bajando pronunciadas pendientes y atravesando sinuosos senderos a más de mil metros sobre el nivel del mar, puso a prueba las fuerzas físicas de los brigadistas designados para la misión de escalar los 1974 del Pico Turquino. Tras más de ocho horas de marcha- solo se descansó en la Aguada de Joaquín- la vanguardia del grupo pudo vencer el trayecto final del ascenso y alcanzar la cima del imponente monte, donde enarbolaron las banderas que traían consigo y realizaron un breve pero emotivo acto político.

La brigadista Dominga Flores Anaya expresó que haber llegado a la cúspide de la más alta elevación de Cuba, va más allá de un acto simbólico, constituye una muestra de sacrificio hacia los patriotas luchadores independentistas Avelino González Claudio y Oscar López Rivera, este último preso hace 32 años.

Domingo dijo también que la lucha por la liberación de los cuatro antiterroristas cubanos condenados en los Estados Unidos hace casi 15 años, no puede separarse de la que se libra en su país para lograr la excarcelación de los presos políticos, por eso la campaña se denomina "Por libertad de Los Nuestros".