Why
Chicago?
One of three pilot regions — alongside Los Angeles and Atlanta — for the Alchemy Pot Initiative.
A decade of
broken promises.
Chicago's food crisis isn't invisible. It's documented, discussed, and the subject of years of political pledges — most of which haven't been kept.
Across Chicago, low food access increased 63% over the last decade as major grocery stores closed — Whole Foods in Englewood, Walmart in four neighborhoods, Aldi in West Garfield Park and Auburn Gresham. A $13.5 million city-funded effort to reopen six stores largely failed to deliver. More than 500,000 Chicago residents still live in a food desert.
The Alchemy Pot Initiative doesn't make a promise about what institutions will build. It gives students a practice they can use right now — composting, reflection, connection — that works regardless of what the city does or doesn't deliver. That is a different kind of agency.
Students transform campus food waste into living soil using the in-ground Soil Maker. They don't wait for the store to open. They grow what they need — starting with the ground beneath their feet.
The Alchemy Pot practice gives students a structured way to process what feels heavy — mirroring the slow, transformative process of composting.
A student who watches food scraps become living soil doesn't just have a garden. They have proof — in their hands, in the ground — that they can transform what they were given. That belief is what travels with them.
The weight is real.
And it's regional.
The emotional burden Chicago students are carrying is among the most documented of any metro area in the country. And it doesn't stop at the city limits.
In the city, the causes are acute — violence exposure, trauma, grief, instability. In the suburbs, the causes are different but the need is the same: anxiety, depression, disconnection, and nowhere structured to put it down. The Alchemy Pot Initiative works in both environments because the practice itself is universal.
This isn't just emotional suffering. Research shows that unprocessed trauma prevents students from accessing the part of the brain that processes and retains information. Addressing it isn't separate from education — it is education.
The region is not
starting from zero.
Chicago Public Schools has a dedicated Office of Social and Emotional Learning embedded in the district's five-year strategic plan — with 650+ school social workers serving students across the city. CPS also has an active composting program in 20 schools with a goal of 80% waste diversion by 2030. In the suburbs, Illinois SEL standards are statewide, and seven regional SEL Hubs serve districts across the metro area. The infrastructure exists. What's missing is the connective tissue — a framework that links the inner and outer work and gives students something tangible they can see growing.
CPS has been composting in schools since 2014. The Soil Maker deepens a practice already underway — it doesn't start one.
Illinois SEL standards apply statewide. Seven regional SEL Hubs support districts from the city to the suburbs. The language travels.
A model that works in Englewood and in a DuPage County suburb is a model that can be taken anywhere. Chicago gives us that proof.
Helping students transform
their worlds.
Inside and out. Across a whole region. Students who learn to turn dirt into soil — with their hands and with their emotional practice — carry that capacity everywhere. Chicago is where we prove it works across the full range.
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