HISTORIC WAGNER FARM RETURNS
TO ITS ROOTS TO FEED GLENVIEW
The Glenview Park District’s Historic Wagner Farm
has long connected Glenview residents to their
agricultural past and served as a community
fixture. This summer, in the midst of the COVID-19
crisis, Historic Wagner Farm will temporarily return
to its roots as a full-time working farm.
This new initiative, called Feeding
Glenview, shifts the farm’s mission from
providing public programming to food
production. With food insecurity on the
increase, Wagner Farm has a tremendous
opportunity to help our community access
healthy, local food in a variety of ways.
Since being acquired by the Park District, the farm’s
focus has been on educating people about where
their food comes from. “We aren’t able to provide
that educational component right now, so the
next best thing is to become the place where food
actually comes from. This way we are able to be
relevant to the community in a whole new way,”
says Jon Kuester, Historic Wagner Farm’s director.
Feeding Glenview’s first priority is to provide food
for those most in need. The farm will continue
their weekly donation of eggs to the Northfield
Township Food Pantry from their flock of 80
pasture-raised chickens and will add weekly
donations of fruits and vegetables as soon as they
are ready for harvest.