Amanda Rivkin

Sustenance: Chicago + the Food Chain

Commissioned by Art Works Projects 

On display at the American Corner in Trieste, Italy, March 1-24, 2016 

"Hunger Week" at Loyola University Chicago Damen Student Center, November 2-8, 2015 

the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy, August 27-September 20, 2015 

Art Works Projects in Chicago, January 14-February 28, 2015. 

 

 

  • DIXON, ILLINOIS. A statue of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan looking at kernels of corn in his hand stands outside his boyhood home on April 5, 2015. A plaque underneath the statue notes {quote}Illinois is famous for its agricultural products; so it seems appropriate for him to be admiring the kernels of corn in his hand.{quote}
  • MENDOTA, ILLINOIS. The lattice of the ladders and silos storing corn and soy at Northern Partners Cooperative on December 26, 2014. Corn and soy are the two main crops grown in the state of Illinois; corn and soy grown in the Illinois River Valley is shipped down the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River before being sent on barges to world markets through the ports of Louisiana.
  • CARPENTERSVILLE, ILLINOIS. Cliff McConville, 52, moves the chicken houses each morning so the chickens can fertilize different sections of land at the Barrington Natural Farms in the Brunner Family Forest Preserve on July 30, 2015. McConville worked for years in downtown Chicago in the insurance industry, a one and a half hour commute each way, before discovering late in life he likes being around {quote}happy animals,{quote} so after reading much about it, he began organic farming and works a few hours a day from home in the insurance business.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Fred Daniels, 31, the site manager of Growing Home, a community-based agriculture project, adjusts the row cover inside one of the facility's hoop houses where a range of root and leaf vegetables are grown in the high crime Englewood neighborhood on December 22, 2014. Englewood is one of the neighborhoods most hard hit by violent crime year after year in Chicago but has not avoided the healthier food fashion, with the national organic grocery retail chain Whole Foods announcing that it will be opening a store in the neighborhood at 61st Street and Halsted.
  • CARPENTERSVILLE, ILLINOIS. A cornfield in the Brunner Family Forest Preserve on July 30, 2015. Corn and soy are the only crops a farmer can insure with the federal government in the state of Illinois.
  • SPRING VALLEY, ILLINOIS. A barge sits on Illinois River to be loaded with corn and soy at the Cargill riverside facility on January 9, 2014.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Workers prepare for morning pick-ups at the loading dock of Cougle Wholesale Poultry and Meats in the Fulton Market meatpacking district of the West Loop on December 22, 2014. Cougle is a niche processor, processing poultry and meat on a scale that fits mid-market needs.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Pedestrians walk by the Lyric Opera House where the James Beard Foundation Awards, {quote}the Oscars for food,{quote} is being held on May 4, 2015. For the first time in the foundation's 25 year history, the awards were held in Chicago which has become a major {quote}foodie{quote} capital in the United States.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Employees of Gourmet Gorilla pull baked chicken from an oven in the kitchen in the West Town neighborhood on February 12, 2015.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. A clerk sweeps near the entrance at the end of the produce section at Central Park Produce at 3604 W. Division in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on January 5, 2015. AT Central Park Produce, a gallon of milk is $3.79, a carton of eggs is $1.99, a pound of ground beef is $3.79, a can of tuna is 99 cents, and a loaf of bread is 99 cents.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Workers in the dairy section of the Save-A-Lot at 10700 S. Halsted in the Morgan Park neighborhood on January 2, 2015. At this Save-A-Lot location, a gallon of milk costs $3.29, a carton of eggs costs $2.49, a pound of ground beef costs $2.99, a can of tuna costs 79 cents and a loaf of bread costs $1.29.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Groceries behind bulletproof glass at We Serve Food Mart at 10857 S. Halsted in the Roseland neighborhood on January 2, 2015. At the We Serve Food Mart, a gallon of milk costs $3.49, a carton of eggs costs $1.49, a can of tuna costs $1.49 and a load of bread costs $1.25 and ground beef was unavailable at the time.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Sara Hamdan of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) stands in front of Alot To Save Food at 1207 W. 63rd Street in the Englewood neighborhood on January 5, 2015. IMAN works with corner store owners in low income neighborhoods to provide customer and storeowner alike with fresh fruit and produce.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. An administrative worker makes her way to her office passing workers in the food storage area of the four year old $30 million warehouse that is home to the Greater Chicago Food Depository's administrative offices and storage in the Archer Heights warehouse district near Midway Airport on December 23, 2014. One hundred and sixty people are employed by the organization which moves sixty seven million pounds of food annually to feed a significant portion of the 812,000 residents of Cook County who require food assistance.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. The Greater Chicago Food Depository runs the Healthy Kids Market which distributes nutritious foods and basic essentials to qualifying parents from the cafeteria of the Calmeca Academy of Fine Arts and Dual Language School in the Brighton Park neighborhood on January 15, 2015. One in six Chicagoans requires food assistance.
  • URBANA, ILLINOIS. Alex Warner, 10, of Rantoul, Illinois waits to show his angus cow {quote}Little Rascal{quote} at the Champaign County Fair on July 30, 2015. Summer is county fair season and in Illinois, that means food, 4H, and the midway; Warner's angus cow placed first in the lightweight class of angus cow.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Matthew Peters, 17, reflected in a goldfish basin while examining a a plant he grew in the aguaponics lab at Lane Tech High School on March 19, 2015. Lane Tech, a Chicago Public High School, has cultivated the program with support from the Century Foundation and the school's alumni association as well as donations from Brew and Grow and Home Depot.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Fourth graders in Ms. Ramirez's class pass around a cabbage from the family-owned DeGroot Farms at the Nathanael Greene Elementary School in the McKinley Park neighborhood on December 19, 2014. DeGroot Farms sells to Aramark which in turn has a contract to serve Chicago Public Schools.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Students at the Galapagos School help design a healthy school lunch that meets various federal government nutritional and budgetary criteria with representatives from Gourmet Gorilla during an interactive presentation on building healthy school lunches at their school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on February 12, 2015.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Fifth graders in Ms. Heidy's class enjoy their school lunch in the cafeteria at the Nathanael Greene Elementary School in the McKinley Park neighborhood on December 19, 2014. All but one student in Ms. Heidy's class receives food assistance in the form of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP, which includes a free lunch.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. A student at the Galapagos School, a charter school, walks home with half a melon left at the end of an interactive presentation on building healthy school lunches in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on February 12, 2015.
  • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Melody Miller of St. Paul, Minnesota cooks jerk chicken and turkey legs over the grill during the back-to-school Bud Biliken Day Parade and Picnic, an annual tradition on the South Side, in Washington Park on August 9, 2015.
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