A thriving organic agriculture enterprise based in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago offers locally grown food and a job-training program.
Farmers harvest lettuce at the Growing Home farm in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.
Participants take part in a curriculum focusing on skills such as planting, organic cultivating and harvesting, food and nutrition education, and basic life skills such as personal money management. They also learn marketing and sales techniques, which they utilize when working at sales booths. In addition to job training, Growing Home provides healthy produce for the Englewood community, an area that has been categorized as food desert.
In 2009, Growing Home received a mini-permanent mortgage from the Chicago Community Loan Fund to help complete its first farm location. The loan also enabled Growing Home to maintain essential reserves of cash so that it could continue as a successful and stable organization.
Praxis Mutual Funds® supports programs and projects like Growing Home and CCLF through investments in Calvert Foundation, an impact-investing institution that helps people around the world through community development financing. It’s part of the Praxis commitment to place approximately 1 percent of each of its funds to benefit neighborhoods and individuals through community development investments.
For more stories about people who have benefitted from these investments, visit Praxis Community Development Investments. This story is originally from the Praxis community development investing map.
About Praxis Mutual Funds and Everence®
Praxis Mutual Funds is a leading faith-based, socially responsible family of mutual funds designed to help people and groups integrate their finances with their values. Praxis is the mutual fund family of Everence Financial, a comprehensive, faith-based financial services organization helping individuals, organizations and congregations. To learn more, visit praxismutualfunds.com and everence.com, or call (800) 348-7468.
Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisors and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. To learn more, visit everence.com or call (800) 348-7468.
About Calvert Foundation
Calvert Foundation enables people to invest for social good. Through its flagship Community Investment Note®, more than 15,000 investors have channeled more than $1 billion in investments to hundreds of nonprofits and social enterprises worldwide. Investor dollars empower women, fund construction of affordable housing, provide loans to small-business owners, increase access to health care, and support fair trade and sustainable agriculture. To learn more, visit calvertfoundation.org.