Recently, my organization, Dion’s Chicago Dream partnered with Discover Financial Services to bring fresh, healthy food to the people of Chatham – a South Side Chicago neighborhood where 55 percent of residents have limited access to food. It was a moment to celebrate, and to reflect on how far we’ve come in just four years.
In 2020, with only $20 to my name, I bet on myself and launched Dion’s Chicago Dream, a social enterprise tackling food insecurity with a fresh perspective. As a formerly homeless Navy veteran, I knew hunger firsthand. I also knew the traditional food pantry model wasn’t the solution our communities needed.
Food insecurity isn’t a niche problem; it’s a national and international crisis. As of 2023, 47.4 million people – including 7.2 million children – live in food-insecure households. In Chicago, one in five households faces food insecurity, a number that continues to rise as food prices soar and safety nets remain stretched thin.
When I founded Dion’s Chicago Dream, I recognized that food insecurity is intertwined with unemployment and underemployment. As of November, the national unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, but it rises to 5.8 percent for Black Americans and 4.6 percent for Latinos. Adding to that, the Chicago metro area holds the unfortunate distinction of having one of the highest unemployment rates among major U.S. cities at 5.3 percent. These statistics, while indicative of improvement, often mask the reality of underemployment, where people juggle multiple jobs and still struggle to make ends meet.
Managing food insecurity means building a workforce capable of addressing it. That requires creating jobs, cultivating talent, and challenging outdated models. At Dion’s Chicago Dream, we reject the idea that feeding people is charity work. Managing this crisis takes real work, and that deserves real wages. That’s why we pay every employee at least $20 an hour – the very amount I started with – and we provide opportunities for career growth and skill development.
Take Britteny, one of our team members. Raised in Englewood, one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, she struggled to find stable work and often couldn’t afford enough food for her family. Since joining us in 2022, she has earned two promotions, improved her living conditions, and achieved financial stability. Her story is proof that workforce development isn’t just theory – it’s transformative in action. The training she received was paired with the placement we promised.
Today, Dion’s Chicago Dream is a multi-million-dollar organization serving thousands of households across the Chicagoland region every week. We’ve scaled rapidly because we understand the communities we serve, because they are the communities we come from. We know how to meet their needs effectively. Instead of long lines and subpar food at pantries, we purchase fresh, high-quality produce and deliver it directly to families or nearby community hubs outfitted with our network-enabled “Dream Vaults.”
Our success isn’t just about food; it’s about opportunity. The average cost to start a business in America is $40,000 – a barrier most people in under-resourced neighborhoods cannot overcome. While small businesses create the majority of new jobs, Black-owned businesses continue to face significant challenges. According to Third Way, 97 percent of Black-owned businesses have fewer than 20 employees, and 75 percent have fewer than five employees.
That’s why our partnership with Discover is so significant. Opened in 2021, Discover’s Chatham call center – the company’s first new call center in two decades – employs more than 1,000 people, 90 percent of whom are Black. It’s a model of community-focused job creation that offers real growth opportunities.
By placing one of our Dream Vaults in the Chatham call center, we can provide weekly fresh produce to 125 households within a two-mile radius for an entire year. Each household receives a designated pickup day and a personalized code to access their Dream Delivery box – a week’s worth of free, fresh food.
At Dion’s Chicago Dream and Discover, we know that every job created is an investment in a person – and every person is the foundation of a thriving community. By creating opportunities for people to work near where they live and with those they love, we’re rebuilding communities from the inside out: with full pockets and full bellies.
