Plant Truck Chicago: A Greener Chicago

On Friday, September 18th, the Get Growing Foundation sent their plant truck out to Chicago State University for a pop-up sale. Plant Truck Chicago is just one of the programs that foundation has to offer, as they also provide educational programs and year-round outreach to the community which includes harvesting gardens. 

Plant Truck Chicago is a mobile plant garden that goes around the Chicagoland area and sells plants and herbs at affordable prices. The initiative raises funds for the foundation and provides support to their partner organizations. Pre-Covid the truck acted as an incubator for the plants that people were able to walk into to purchase the plants. 

“The Get Growing Foundation got started through the Chicago Flower and Garden Show that was held at Navy Pier every year, and it was an educational partner and community outreach partner for the show and we turned it into a nonprofit,” said Tony Abruscato, Founder and President of Get Growing Foundation.  

According to Abruscato, the foundation is in talks with Chicago State to work with their green house center to grow plant material that will be redistributed in underserved communities using Plant Truck Chicago. 

The truck was located in CSU’s entrance right behind the DMV on 99th and King Drive. People were excited to come out and buy from the truck. Shondrae Lewis said she heard about the event through an email for students and staff, and that she’d never heard of the Get Growing Foundation before Plant Truck Chicago came out to CSU.

“I’ve been saying that I want to get a house plant, so when I saw the advertisement I decided to just stop by.” Lewis says that she thinks that having things like pop-up plant trucks are great because they give people access to things they may not know about and provide something different to do. 

You can follow Plant Truck Chicago @planttruckchicago and see their full schedule on the Get Growing Foundation website.