What is the Illinois Food System Infrastructure Collaborative?
The Illinois Food System Infrastructure Collaborative (IFSIC) is a community of practice that cultivates communication, sharing, and collaboration between its members who are developing and managing infrastructure that is essential to the growth of the Illinois food system.
What is our goal?
Our goal is to accelerate change and growth in our state’s regional food system by increasing connectivity between the many players and local food projects in our state that are developing critical infrastructure that moves food from farm to table.
IFSIC strives to achieve this goal in several ways:
- Serving as an initial checkpoint or informal “group consultation” for new projects, helping IFSIC members track down the best resources (funding, consultants, partners, technical assistance) for developing a food system infrastructure project
- Bringing its members to existing infrastructure sites in the states to meet their colleagues and learn how they navigated a path to success
- Building camaraderie and trust between its members, creating a community of practice where members feel comfortable sharing their knowledge and asking for help
- Leading or supporting studies that examine the feasibility of various food system infrastructure projects
- Providing input to lawmakers about critical investments in food system infrastructure
Why is IFSIC important?
It is easy for infrastructure projects and their leaders to wind up siloed as they plan and launch local food system projects, which exacerbates inevitable growing pains, makes expansion more difficult, and can result in duplicative projects or inefficient use of resources. IFSIC intends to share resources for funding, project development, events, jobs, and a whole lot more, while developing a community of camaraderie and pragmatic positivity.
How is ifsic funded?
IFSIC, with Illinois Stewardship Alliance as fiscal sponsor, received funding from the Chicago Region Food System Fund, the Illinois Food Movement Fun, and from the Illinois Specialty Crop Block Grant program. New case study work in 2026 will be supported by Illinois Extension.
WHAT DOES IFSIC DO?
Monthly meeting: held every second Tuesday at noon, this is IFSIC’s most basic function. In this meeting, the IFSIC facilitator leads conversation to encourage sharing and collaboration between members. Meetings will often feature a stakeholder or expert from our community who can share a specific story about their work or present on a topic that would be of interest to most members. The meetings are scheduled for an hour, with an optional extra half-hour if some members wish to stay on and continue the conversation.
Monthly resource share: the IFSIC facilitator gathers a list of resources relevant to members each month and shares them in a simple document, sorted by category. Members are able to add content to this resource list by either emailing the facilitator or leaving a comment. This is a running list so members can scroll back to reference prior listed resources.
Annual in-person meetings: IFSIC has had two in-person gatherings since its founding in 2021, and plans to hold an annual meeting in conjunction with the annual Everything Local Conference, held in January in Springfield.
Site visits: IFSIC organizes visits to sites relevant to members. These include food hubs, pilot plants, small food processing facilities, larger food manufacturers, food distribution and storage facilities, and a lot more.
Case Studies: this project is underway in 2026. IFSIC is teaming with Illinois Extension to create detailed case studies about food system infrastructure projects across the state that have achieved a level of success from which others could learn.
WHAT KIND OF ORGANIZATIONS ARE MEMBERS OF IFSIC?
IFSIC members reflect the diversity of the local food movement in Illinois and include:
- Illinois Stewardship Alliance
- Farmers Rising
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
- Chicago Food Policy Action Council
- Food Works
- The Motherland Community Project
- Feeding Illinois
- LEAF Food Hub
- Illinois Farmers Market Association
- Illinois Extension
- IL State Board of Education – Nutrition Programs
- Bright Beat
- Wasted Food Action Alliance
- IL Food Scrap & Composting Coalition
- Chicago Sustainability Task Force
- IL Farm to School Network @ Seven Generations Ahead
- Midwest Foods
- Greater Wabash Food Council
- DePaul University
- Bubbly Dynamics LLC / The Plant
- Heartland Farms LLC
- College of Lake County- Urban Farm Center
- Tulip Tree Gardens Co. & Village Farmstand
- Springfield Grocery Coop
- Terripin Farms/Terripin Farm Stand & Co-op
- 19 By 1950 Family Farm & Farm Family Foods
- Think Regeneration
- Backyard Beauty
- Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
- Knecht Research Consulting and Design
- Food Shed Co-op
- Farm to City Harvest Store, Inc.
- Meadow Lane Farm
- Alton Works
- FarmFED Cooperative
- Community Food Navigator
- Main Street Pastures
- Wallace Center at Winrock International
- Common Market Great Lakes
- All Seasons Farm
- HNA Networks
- The Eco-Friendly Mobile Farm Stand Project
- BradleyWorks Sustainable Culinary LLC
- Center for Good Food Purchasing
- The Saucier LLC
- Wallace Center
- NWI Food Council
- The Paramount Group
- ISTC
- Finding Justice A Flower and Vegetable Garden; Illinois Stewardship Alliance
- Rizoma Field School
- Bright Beat
- Nature Works, Inc
- Cultivate Collective
- Illinois Food Justice Alliance
- Center for Agrarian Learning at MCC
- Climatebase
- Salt Fork Food Works
- Living Roots Farm
- The Pawpaw Foundation
- Indiana State Dept of Agriculture and Indiana FARMWISE
- Chicago’s Green City Market Program
- TWR collective
Funding: IFSIC, with Illinois Stewardship Alliance as fiscal sponsor, received fundin
WHO LEADS IFSIC?
- Steering Committee: IFSIC is led by a four-member steering committee:
- Stef Funk, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: Stef Funk (she/hers), is an experienced policy advocate, community organizer, and event planner. Previously she’s worked with the McKinley Park Farmers Market, Plant Chicago, and the Chicago Food Policy Action Council. Stef holds a degree in Environmental Science from Clark University, is an eager crafter, and cares for 13 backyard chickens on the southwest side of Chicago.
- Alex Frantz, Midwest Foods: Passionate about exploring solutions to the challenges presented by an inequitable and unsustainable food system, Alex has spent over a decade in a variety of roles that cultivate demand, support farmers and growers, and increase the transparency needed to transform it. In her current role at Midwest Foods she utilizes storytelling and reporting to co-create innovative partnerships with farmers and foodservice clients, and she proudly serves on the boards of Green City Market and Advocates for Urban Agriculture and is a co-chair of the Metro Chicago Good Food Purchasing Initiative Steering Council.
- Eliana Pinilla, Chicago Food Policy Action Council – Cook County Good Food Purchasing Program Implementation: Eliana has spent 19 years building a more resilient and equitable food ecosystem. A food scientist by training, she’s tackled complex challenges across the food industry, from consumer packaged goods to food ingredient manufacturing, always with a focus on innovative solutions. Now, she’s channeling her expertise into community food systems, forging powerful partnerships between healthcare, education, and community institutions and the regional foodshed. She pilots, learns, and scales initiatives that strengthen local food economies. Eliana’s commitment to building a better food future is evident in her leadership roles, including serving on the board of Marbleseed (an organic farming non-profit), mentoring for the Good Food Accelerator, and Metro Chicago Good Food Purchasing Initiative steering council.
- Ritchie Wai (he/him) is the farmer training coordinator for Farmers Rising in Caledonia. He sharpened his teeth and nails in AmeriCorps VISTA working with rural Tennessee communities and students to develop sustainable food system projects. He currently works with a diverse and eclectic community of farmers through the Upper Midwest Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) and a holistic farm business training program – Farm Beginnings.
- Facilitator: IFSIC has been facilitated by Jeff Hake since early 2023. Jeff is also a farmer and food business owner at Funks Grove Heritage Fruits & Grains, serves on Illinois’ RFSI food system asset mapping steering committee, and volunteers as the Parks & Recreation Committee lead for his local community group, CORE of McLean. He has been farming and working for food systems change for nearly 20 years, first in New England and now from his new home in McLean, IL.
- Founder: Dan Kenney of Dekalb County Community Gardens founded IFSIC (originally as Illinois Food System Collaborative) in 2021 in part to support DCCG’s ambitious plan to build a mixed-use development with a food hub, shared-use commercial kitchen, food court, and gathering spaces.
Who should join IFSIC?
If you lead or participate in any kind of local food infrastructure project, this is the place for you! Examples include developing or expanding commercial kitchens, local grocery stores, canneries, cold storage, food hubs, meat processors, etc. While on-farm infrastructure is also a critical need in our food system, our focus is more on “middle of the supply chain” assets that are found off-farm or that are on-farm but serve a role for multiple other stakeholders in the food system.
We welcome leaders from communities throughout the state that we have not yet connected with in this work, especially BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, and veteran farmers, business owners, and advocates.
We recognize that having developed largely by word of mouth and through existing networks, we have ongoing work to do to make new connections. We are committed to countering the forces that perpetuate systemic underrepresentation and uneven distribution of resources by creating a wider community of support and space for knowledge sharing as we grow our network.
The only official membership requirement is to fill out the form linked below and a simple expectation to engage with the community in a spirit of collaboration, transparency, and camaraderie.
How do I join IFSIC?
Simple! Complete our interest form to get connected to the opportunities with IFSIC.
Questions?
Reach out to IFSIC facilitator Jeff Hake at jeff@ilstewards.org with questions.
