A Food Forum in Oak Park

One of the key parts of the , the massive civic effort centered on making our area a cleaner and greener place to live, revolves around food.

Namely, the responsible production, raising and growing of food and how it relates to environmental sustainability. Through of , organizers whittled the community's priorities down to three major areas: Using more "public, private and institutional land to grow more food," increasing the availability of local and regional food throughout the year and building healthy soil for growing. (A copy of the full PlanItGreen sustainability plan accompanies this story as a PDF. Be warned, at 99 pages, it's a big file but worth a look.)

Also among the ideas kicked around was the creation of a community food center and learning garden.

On Thursday, organizers with Seven Generations Ahead are hosting a Food Forum that will push those discussions along. It's scheduled to take place from 7-8:30 p.m. at the , 615 Garfield St. From Seven Generations Ahead:

The meeting format will include a few brief presentations on project ideas from members of the community, to be followed by a discussion of these ideas and other concepts that you bring to the meeting. A key outcome of the meeting will be to organize working groups that in subsequent meetings will begin to develop action steps and timelines for project implementation.

At least one of those presentations will come from Jenny Jocks Stelzer, co-founder of the still-starting-up food co-op in northeast Oak Park, which is organizing under the name Skunk Hollow Growing and Sharing.

In that group's , Stelzer is inviting residents to "hear our concept for the co-op, to share your own ideas, and, perhaps, to join a working group and get involved."