Home-Grown Training in Chicago
 In a once-empty lot in Chicago's stockyard district (the setting for Upton Sinclair's classic novel The Jungle,) an urban farm called Growing Home has transformed the land into a lush garden of fruits and vegetables and, more importantly, transformed the formerly homeless people who now manage it.
Heifer International is helping many major urban centers across the country repurpose land like this one in Chicago - areas that once were thriving downtowns but through ensuing years became unused parking lots, abandoned industrial complexes and old building sites reclaimed by weeds.
Because many of these sites are paved or contaminated by years of industrial use, the farming is done in raised beds - therefore avoiding the expense of cleaning.
Growing Home sells its produce to local restaurants and at two farmers markets, providing fresh food in urban areas that usually offer only fast-food restaurants and convenience stores for its residents. The farm also has a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program - members pay a fee at the beginning of the season and plant and harvest their own produce.
Perhaps most importantly, Growing Home has helped create a sense of ownership for people who have not had much to call their own. 
"People [at the market] want to know where things are grown," said Courtney, one of the project participants, "then they want to know how I know. I tell them, because I'm the one that put the seed in the ground, watered it, cut it and brought it to the market."
Over in the center of Chicago, a 19,000-square-foot community garden is producing food that goes directly to shelters and soup kitchens. This garden is part of Growing Power, a large training program and agricultural complex based in Milwaukee that was created by Will Allen, a former professional basketball player. Heifer and Growing Power joined forces almost 10 years ago, and Growing Home's gardeners receive training through the Growing Power project.
This training, along with gardening duties, is preparing both young people and the unemployed for greater responsibilities in future jobs.
"Growing Home is trying to give people basics of what an employer expects of you since most have been out of work for years," said Avram Golden-Trist, the site coordinator. "With this program we hope to alert them to avenues where they can move on as a positive person."
And Allen believes the project will continue to be 'Growing' for years to come.
"There are 70,000 acres of vacant lots in the Chicago area," Allen said, "All I need to set it up is a handful of worms."
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