New garden partnership with the Lake County Health Department in North Chicago.Read more

Veterans Crisis Line:dial 988, then press 1

North Chicago, Illinois

Empowering Veterans, Nourishing Communities

Veterans, neighbors and volunteers grow food together in North Chicago. We are committed to addressing food scarcity in under-served communities by empowering veterans and the community to create a food oasis.

Join us SaturdayHow the garden helps veterans
A striped heirloom tomato ripening on the vine in the GHV Healing Garden

  • 2016

    Co-founded by an Air Force veteran and a horticultural therapist

  • 14 acres

    of city land offered by North Chicago for a community garden

  • $150,000

    state capital grant in 2023 to more than triple the garden

Healing mind, body, belly

GHV pairs permaculture with peer support, wellness education and fresh food. Here is what that looks like in the beds.

Veterans and volunteers at harvest, holding chard, beets and a box of fresh vegetables
Harvest day with veterans and volunteers.

  1. Mind

    Peer support, outdoors

    Veterans garden beside other veterans and neighbors. GHV began because many service members coming home had few places for connection, purpose and healing in a supportive community.

  2. Body

    Hands in the soil

    Building raised beds, preparing soil, weeding and pruning. Veterans learn permaculture and sustainable growing, with wellness education woven into the work.

  3. Belly

    Fresh food for neighbors

    Harvests go to local food pantries, and veterans become ambassadors for community food networks across North Chicago and Lake County.

  4. Inside the Healing Garden
Marshall Fox, Air Force veteran and GHV co-founderLukan Paulus, GHV co-founder and horticultural therapist

Marshall Fox (left) and the late Lukan Paulus.

Started by a veteran and a gardener

Air Force veteran Marshall Fox and Lukan Paulus, certified in sustainable agriculture and horticultural therapy, co-founded GHV. Their first program brought veterans from the Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago to garden plots donated by the Liberty Prairie Foundation in Grayslake.

Lukan helped establish GHV's community gardens in North Chicago and Gurnee. He died in September 2021.

Read the GHV story

Saturdays in the garden

Two volunteers planting seedlings in new cedar raised beds beside a brick clinic building

When

Saturdays, 10am to 2pm

Where

GHV Healing Garden, on the Rosalind Franklin University Health Clinic grounds, 3471 N. Green Bay Road, North Chicago.

Directions to the garden

The work

Build raised beds, prepare soil, weed and prune alongside local veterans, and help get the harvest to food pantries.

What volunteers do

“This organization directly supports veterans in the Lake County community combat post-war trauma.”

Illinois State Sen. Adriane Johnson

Keep the garden growing

Gifts keep the Healing Garden growing and fresh food moving to local pantries. Next up: hoop houses for the 2027 season.

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