Why
Chicago?

One of three pilot regions — alongside Los Angeles and Atlanta — for the Alchemy Pot Initiative.

Learn About the Initiative → Get In Touch

500K+

Chicago residents living in a food desert — with low food access increasing 63% over the last decade as grocery stores closed and promised replacements failed

94%

Of Chicago youth identified mental health as a crisis facing people their age — up from 92% the year before

1 in 6

Cook County children experience food insecurity on any given day

Governor Pritzker / Illinois DCEO

40%

Of Chicago high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2023

CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023

38%

Of adolescent girls across 10 neighborhood high schools show PTSD signs — most with B averages and no outward signs of distress

University of Chicago Education Lab

Existing Infrastructure

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 already composts in 20 schools. 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.

🌱

The composting practice already exists

CPS has been composting in schools since 2014. The Soil Maker deepens a practice already underway — it doesn't start one.

🏛

The SEL framework is region-wide

Illinois SEL standards apply statewide. Seven regional SEL Hubs support districts from the city to the suburbs. The language travels.

🤝

The range proves the model

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.

Two Systems. One Initiative.

Soil on the Outside

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.

Soil on the Inside

The Alchemy Pot practice gives students a structured way to process what feels heavy — mirroring the slow, transformative process of composting.

The Connection

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.

Youth Mental Health

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.

City — A Better Chicago, 2024

2 in 3

Chicago youth have witnessed community violence. 1 in 4 witness it weekly

City — CPS Office of Social and Emotional Learning

650+

School social workers serving CPS students — embedded in the district's five-year SEL strategic plan

Suburbs — Cook County DPH

1 in 3

Suburban Cook County youth reported depression — prompting DuPage County to open its first-ever 24-hour youth mental health crisis center

Selected Sources

1 in 6 Cook County Children Food Insecure — Governor Pritzker / Illinois DCEO

dceo.illinois.gov/news/press-release.25024.html