Community Corner

Community Garden Idea Sprouting in Niles

A teen who almost died from eating contaminated food is inspiring a movement to organize a Niles community garden, in which people can grow their own.


Written by Pam DeFiglio

The story of a strapping teen athlete crippled by a food-borne "superbug" resonated with Shawn Phillips, a Niles resident.

Phillips' basketball-playing buddy, Jeff Spitz, a filmmaker, made a documentary about his teen son Sam's experience eating chicken contaminated with campylobacter bacteria, and becoming deathly ill.

Phillips is taking to heart Spitz's message, and movement, to try to change and improve eating habits by 10 percent. The film encourages people to eat 10 percent more fruits and vegetables, 10 percent more organic food, 10 percent more locally-grown food, and so on.

"I want to start a community garden," Phillips said.

He's working with the Niles Public Library's Cindy Rademacher, Athena Columbus of the Niles Garden Club, the Niles Park District, Village of Niles trustees and others to plan the community garden. Ideally, they would like it to start next spring.

"We have a lot of people expressing interest," said Phillips. "I've been to the (village of Niles) Environmental Practices Committee, I spoke with somebody from the Zoning Board, and I've been to the (Niles) Park District Board meeting.

"The park district was very receptive and thought it was a great idea."

They are looking at whether the district can provide land for the project, he said.

He envisions people being able to have their own plot of land in the community garden, to plant with produce they like.

It would be educational, enable people to be outdoors and could have a charitable aspect, too, Phillips said. Gardeners could be encouraged to donate 10 percent of their harvest to a food pantry. Phillips said the Niles Township Food Pantry garden provides fresh produce for recipients of the food pantry.

As for Sam Spitz, the 15-year-old who ate the contaminated chicken and became extremely sick, his family began to panic when antibiotics did nothing to help.  His parents learned chickens and pigs raised for slaughter are routinely given antibiotics, which can make the drugs ineffective for humans who eat the treated chicken and pork meat, according to a Chicago Tribune article about Sam Spitz and antibiotics in meat and poultry.

Fortunately, a medical expert analyzed the antibiotic resistance and intervened before it was too late. Sam Spitz recovered after about a month, and is now 22 years old. 

His illness inspired his family to launch an effort to get Americans to eat more organic food, which is generally not treated with antibiotics. It's a message that seems to be taking root. 

Like Niles-Morton Grove Patch on Facebook

  


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here