In May 2020, Chicago Grows Food (CGF), a collaborative of nearly a dozen individuals, school-based organizations, university partners, and non-profit organizations, launched the Grow Your Groceries program to address increasing rates of food insecurity in Chicago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Grow Your Groceries program provides home gardening kits, which include a growing vessel, soil, seeds or a seedling, and an instruction book in English or Spanish to address the physical and educational barriers that individuals often face to growing food. Since the start, Chicago Grows Food continues to distribute kits, and has grown to include home garden beds and free education.