Should the Park District of La Grange designate some of its land for community supported agriculture, possibly on one of the parcels in Gordon Park it is trying to sell?
At least two park commissioners—Brad Belcaster and Chris Walsh—think it is an idea worth exploring after hearing a pitch on the concept Oct. 21 from resident Kheir Fakhreldin.
Watch a video Fakhreldin's pitch and the board's discussion below.
Community supported agriculture, CSA for short, "is a system where people pay in a certain amount of money at the beginning of a growing season, and then they [receive] shares of vegetables and fruits that are grown in the garden throughout the growing season," Fakhreldin said.
The concept differs from a traditional community garden where participants are assigned individual plots in which to grow crops for their own use. CSA shareowners may choose to get involved in tending the garden, but it is not a requirement.
Fakhreldin, who was raised in La Grange, recently returned home after pursuing studies in Michigan, where he became familiar with the CSA concept.
He said he hoped his pitch to the park commissioners would "plant a seed, literally as well as metaphorically, for a land use that [the park district] might not have considered."
Fakhreldin cited a one local CSA already operating at the Field Park School in Western Springs, which was featured in an Oct. 18 story in The Doings newspaper.
La Grange park commissioners offered no immediate response as Fakhreldin offered his suggestion during a period allotted for public comment shortly after the start of the board's regular meeting.
But at the end of the two-hour meeting, during a period reserved for commissioner comments and after Fakhreldin had left the meeting, Belcaster said he thought the idea of a CSA might have merit.
Belcaster said Fakhreldin was the second La Grange resident from whom he had recently been approached with the idea of the park district hosting a CSA project. The first was a man who told Belcaster about being involved in a community garden along with both his son and his father.
The idea of three generations working together on a common project was "just a neat thing for them to spend time together," Belcaster said. "I think it might be something that we should take a look at."
Walsh said he also supported exploring a CSA project for the park district, while admitting he had not been immediately keen to the idea when Fakhreldin proposed it.
"There are plenty of community supported agriculture outlets that [already] are available to people who live in La Grange," Walsh said, adding that he was a shareowner in a CSA group that received weekly deliveries of fresh produce from a farm outside of the village.
But, Walsh acknowledged, "it's also nice actually doing the growing, not just doing the purchasing and consuming. I'm starting to come around to that."
He said there were several parcels of vacant land in the village that might be appropriate for a garden, some owned by the park district and others by third parties who also might be willing to participate.
Walsh noted that the earlier in the meeting the commissioners had postponed renovations planned for Gordon Park, due to a lack of funds pending the sale of two parcels from the park.
"We have the opportunity to potentially use some space there for a bounded time period," Walsh said. "Maybe it's something we ought to consider."
Discussion concluded with the board directing its executive director, Dean Bissias, to conduct further research on the idea.