History of Slow Food Chicago

Slow Food Chicago has been active since 1998, and supports more initiatives and activities every year.

• 1998: 10 people gather informally for the first time in Chicago under the name of Slow Food. Slow Food is still firmly rooted in Italy; Slow Food USA has not yet been created.

• 1999: Slow Food Chicago hosts its first event, Feast of the Senses, with Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini in attendance. At the end of 1999, Slow Food Chicago has 100 members.

• 2000: Slow Food USA, the national representative of Slow Food, is chartered by Slow Food International and opens its office in New York.

• 2001: Slow Food Chicago is formally founded on June 5.

• 2002: Slow Food Chicago founds the Sprouts program at Green City Market and in area schools.

• 2004: The Slow Food Guide to Chicago is published. The chapter initiates a series of successful neighborhood culinary walking tours based on the guide book.

• 2004: Evanston SFC member Lynn Hyndman approaches Slow Food Chicago about starting an edible schoolyard at the Dawes Elementary school. The partnership led to a successful garden, one of the first edible schoolyard gardens in the area.

• 2004: Slow Food Chicago organizes a delegation of farmers from Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana to represent the region at the first Terra Madre conference in Turin, Italy.

• 2005: Slow Food Chicago helps organize the 2005 Farm Aid concert and tour in the Chicago area.

• 2005: To manage the growing interest and activity of Slow Food Chicago, the chapter transitions to a more formalized organization and elects its first governing Board of Directors.

• 2007: While on a book tour promoting the publication of his book “Good, Clean, and Fair,” Carlo Petrini visits Chicago and gives a public lecture to over 700 people at the Northwestern University Law School’s Thorne Auditorium.

• Today: Slow Food Chicago continues to champion good, clean, and fair food for all in the greater Chicagoland area and the midwest through events, outreach, education, partnerships, sponsorships, and Terra Madre scholarships.