Healthy Champaign County

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

Extending active living opportunities to all our neighbors takes thoughtful, intentional work. Removing barriers invited full participation in the life of community. BRAVO Champaign Park District and Champaign Urbana Special Recreation!

05/29/2026

Experience Champaign-Urbana has a nice article about Sola Gratia Farm and our friend Traci Barkley. Celebrating the ways we care for our neighbors!
https://experiencecu.org/brilliant-stories?rec_id=485

05/25/2026

On Tuesday evening 5/26, staff will propose to Champaign City Council a Homelessness Prevention Blueprint and ask to proceed with the actions proposed. Key actions include but are not limited to developing a process for community organizations to apply for funding, and taking steps to create a multi-jurisdictional,
public/private model to operate an emergency shelter, incorporating Council feedback.

More details are here:

The City Council agenda for the May 26, 2026 City Council Regular Study Session is now available. This meeting will be held in the City Council Chambers of the City Building, 102 N. Neil Street in Champaign, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and participation is welcome and encouraged.

05/25/2026

Looks like Feeding Illinois is going to be featuring our friends at Sola Gratia Farm delivering critical message about their work to reduce hunger in Champaign County. Outstanding!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BXEWRYEn6/

05/24/2026

Participants at the Feeding Champaign County Food Summit may recall that our keynote speaker advised that accessible and affordable housing was essential to many of the social determinants of healthy for our neighbors. This might be of interest to folks who share that perspective.

Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy in Champaign

The City of Champaign is completing its first housing study in 15 years, the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy. The purpose of this study is to better understand and quantify Champaign's housing needs and propose a roadmap of strategies to meet housing goals. Major findings include a low vacancy rate (2%) and the need for 7,000 housing units built by 2035. A final draft of the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy is available for review and public comment. For more information, visit engagechampaign.org. Staff will present the final draft to City Council at a Study Session on June 9th before returning for final document adoption in July.

https://engagechampaign.org/housing-study

The final draft of the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy is available for review. Public comment on the document will be accepted until June 20th. A summary of the study's findings can be found here. Leave public comment: https://engagechampaign.org/hnascomment

05/22/2026

Another excellent partnership in Champaign County - FirstFollowers Champaign-Urbana and Sola Gratia Farm - working together to grow together! A reminder of the strength we have when we work together! Top Soil indeed.

Call for volunteers for community garden!

Last year we launched our community garden project, FirstFollowers Top Soil, and it was a great success. This year we are expanding our efforts by forming a partnership with Sola Gratia Farm and purchasing a trailer to deliver produce to Senior Citizen residences.

However, to maximize our output we need some volunteer laborers at our site in Sola Gratia's farm in Urbana. If you or someone you know is interested in participating in this, please let us know. If a person needs volunteer hours for SNAP benefits we can do this also. We look forward to seeing some of you there. If you are interested please reply to this email or phone our office (217) 607-1131.

05/22/2026

So cool - Way to go Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County!

Habitat's Community Garden is planted and coming together thanks to these amazing humans!

05/22/2026

Consider the idea that the folks at Eastern Illinois Foodbank include opportunities for staff to go out to meeting with other "Foodbankers" as a professional development experience. So much to learn from one another - and frequently to share. We all need to work together to overcome our local and national food access crisis. Bravo EIF!

Our Partner Relations team is checking in from Feeding America's Neighbor Access & Experience Institute! They've had the opportunity to hear different perspectives, share experiences, and learn best practices and strategies to bring back to EIF. Building connections with our fellow food bankers is one of our favorite parts of being in this network! ❤️

05/22/2026

Active adventure in a new place, take a friend, meet a new one - CU Girls Who Walk