Blavity: What inspired you to start Dion’s Chicago Dream?

Dion Dawson: As a kid growing up on Chicago’s South Side — and again as a Navy veteran — I’ve experienced first-hand what it’s like not to know where your next meal is coming from. I’m not alone: In our city, 1 in 5 households are at risk of food insecurity. They don’t have regular access to enough nutritious food for average growth and development and an active and healthy life.

During the pandemic, we all saw the obvious need for people to have a dependable supply of nutritious food. Traditional food charities like food pantries and soup kitchens ramped up but still weren’t meeting those needs. And then, when I looked around at existing food charities, I didn’t see many fellow Black people in top leadership.

Dion’s Chicago Dream was born out of my hope that we could find innovative new ways to ensure people could count on getting healthy food on a regular schedule. We started Dream Fridge, a community pantry where we stocked fresh food daily. Then, we started the program we’re best known for: Dream Deliveries. We buy top-quality fresh fruits and vegetables, pack them into 10-pound boxes and deliver them weekly to more than 1,200 households across Chicagoland. And now we’re rolling out our latest innovation: Dream Vaults. Picture Amazon lockers, but for fresh fruits and vegetables. Dream Vaults are network-enabled banks of lockers that our recipients can unlock with a code. Each Dream Vault can serve up to 175 households a week, and we put them inside a store or other gathering spot for a neighborhood.

All of our recipients know that we deliver what and when we promise. We work hard to keep their trust.

Dion Dawson

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