In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

institute
of desiGn
Search
  • Food Systems Action Lab
Food

CF-MOB: Community Food Mobilization in Chicago, Good Food Purchasing Initiative

January 2024 - December 2024

Raised vegetable garden beds in a community garden.
Finding Pathways for Local BIPOC Food Producers to Nourish Their Communities

Summary

The Community Food Mobilization in Chicago (CF-MOB) project is a one year pilot project that aims to identify pathways for local BIPOC food producers to nourish their communities by leveraging the purchasing power of large public institutions.

Funded by US Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation’s Civic Innovation Challenge.

 

About CF-MOB

Lab co-director Weslynne Ashton explains the project.

PROCESS

Designing Food Sovereignty

Community Food Mobilization in Chicago (CF-MOB) investigates mechanisms to transform the structures of food production and distribution in ways that center racial justice, sovereignty and community food access. It aims to advance understanding of public procurement’s role in investing in local, equitable food supply chain development, while empowering and creating space for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) food stakeholders to self-determine their participation in it.

PLAN

Finding Pathways Forward

The team will research structural barriers and practitioner experiences along the food supply chain, including the community’s diverse visions to design a set of innovative, food mobilization pathways:

  • They will identify a shortlist of high-impact, sustainable food products available in the 300-mile radius Chicago foodshed, identify and map supply chain gaps for GFPI-aligned products, and model budgetary scenarios and procurement process reforms enabling integration of local food suppliers, especially BIPOC, into institutional procurement processes.

  • They will develop specifications for a digital platform to share information about food procurement and mobilization opportunities, and connect the diverse constituencies across Chicagoland.

TEAM

Lab Co-Directors
Weslynne Ashton
Maura Shea

IIT Stuart School of Business Student Researchers Elizabeth Durango-Cohen
Yashashri Kolalle
Gaudy Solorzano Morera

Partners: Chicago Food Policy Action Council, Chicago State University, DePaul University, Roosevelt University

Collaborators: City of Chicago, Cook County, Metro Chicago Good Food Purchasing Initiative, Community Food Navigator, Change Lab Solutions

Next

Tags: