BRINGING RELIEF TO A FOOD DESERT
Customizing healthy food accessibility for the South Side
The City of Peoria has increasingly showed interest in improving their food system. The South Side neighborhood in particular is in need of new economic strategies that can support a healthier community. This report seeks to comprehend, summarize and catalyze Peoria’s efforts to go in this direction thus far and to identify the next best steps. These next steps are inspired by investigations of various food justice organizations throughout the Midwest. The proposal is based on ideas gleaned from the business models and programming requirements of multiple regional facilities that engage in small-scale urban farming, commissary kitchens, and agricultural incubators.
PROPOSAL OVERVIEW
Section one profiles urban agriculture organizations that take a grassroots approach to address healthy food accessibility in their localities.
Section two highlights existing business incubator models that both provide opportunities entrepreneurs and supports them in providing access to healthier food options through innovative means.
Section three provides an example of an agricultural incubator that reinvents traditional practices to increase long-term, sustainable solutions to the food desert that it serves.
Section four briefly revisits each model to compare and contrast the effect they have in their own communities and to provide space to conceptualize what a system that incorporates all of these models would look like.
The last section is a site analysis that explores renovation opportunities of existing structures in Peoria and proposes a phased conceptual design solution to accommodates the programmatic goals of a facility for agricultural business incubation.