Sangamon Digest

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, visited the Motherland Community Project urban farm off Fifteenth Street and Lawrence Avenue on Tuesday and said uncertainty at the U.S. Department of Agriculture is making it hard for the nonprofit to plan, Capitol City Now reports. She called pulling back an already-appropriated grant “illegal” and said a Democratic House majority would press USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins about it.

Founder Yves Doumen, an Illinois National Guardsman, has run the farm for six years and grows about 40 crops. He said its mission is to remove barriers that keep people in underserved communities from getting fresh food — and to help them learn to grow it themselves.