JJK Foundation is planting a future in East St. Louis

Before guests even pulled into the parking lot for the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation’s tradition of countering negative narratives about East St. Louis was already in motion. Volunteers with wide smiles waved cars into the lot and directed attendees toward the event. As guests made the short walk from the JJK Center to the new JJK Food Agriculture Nutrition Innovation Center — known as JJK FAN — greeters stood at every turn, each welcome warmer than the last.

Inside the front doors, youth wearing JJK Center T-shirts picked up where the adult greeters left off. “Welcome to the center. Thank you for joining us,” they said, making eye contact as they guided attendees to the auditorium.

“We are very excited about what is happening in the community of East St. Louis,” said JJK Foundation COO Lecia Rives. “I used to call this the house that Jackie built. I am now calling it the campus that Jackie and partners are building.”

What began as an idea in a meeting room has grown into the foundation’s newest venture: the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food Agriculture Nutrition Innovation Center. The project is a collaboration between the JJK Foundation, Lansdowne UP, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

“Not only did Jackie look back, but she also came back and she gives back,” said Kim Kidwell, associate chancellor for strategic partnerships at the University of Illinois. “She shows us the power of giving back and how it makes a tremendous difference.”

JJK FAN adds a major new component to the foundation’s work — one that positions East St. Louis at the forefront of agriculture, nutrition and food technology. It also expands the foundation’s footprint dramatically. The campus has grown from forty acres to more than one hundred, and facilities now total more than 95,000 square feet.

“If East St. Louis is going to thrive, which is Jackie’s dream, there have to be opportunities to work and live in this community,” said Mark Mestemacher, president of Lansdowne UP. “JJK FAN is a seed being planted for people to come back to this community and find a way to have a career.”

For Joyner-Kersee, the moment represented a dream deferred finally taking root. Years ago, the foundation leased land in North St. Louis to test whether agriculture could take hold in an urban environment. The site was surrounded by dilapidated buildings, but the team planted corn, radishes and soybeans — and saw immediate potential.

“We were really just trying to see what can grow in the inner city, and get the community to see what we were trying to do,” Joyner-Kersee said. “Just as we use sports to open the door to endless possibility, we knew through agriculture our young people can explore and do things they didn’t think they could do.”

Partners helped Joyner-Kersee expand that early experiment into a full-scale agricultural innovation hub in her hometown. The augmented campus now includes a fully solar-powered, professional-grade greenhouse — one of only two in North America.

“You see that silver building over there? That is a fully solar-functioning professional-grade greenhouse,” said Kendall Norris, the foundation’s chief Winning in Life officer. “It is the only one in the United States. There’s another one in Canada, but I believe that’s it.”

Planters line the walkway to the greenhouse and sit behind the JJK FAN building, which faces the athletic fields.

“This is the only place on earth where you can watch a football game on Friday night standing next to a box of collards,” Kidwell said.

Inside, multipurpose rooms can host healthy cooking classes, STEM labs and hands-on science experiments focused on photosynthesis, pollination and plant growth. The goal is to build a workforce pipeline in East St. Louis — training young people in urban farming, food science and agricultural technology.

“I can say from my experience of working with many scientists that talent is universal, but opportunity is not,” said Danforth Center scientist Todd Oldroyd. “We will not leave a scientist, an entrepreneur or an innovator behind simply because they grew up in neighborhoods that lack opportunities.”

Twelve-year-old Amon Frazier demonstrated that potential as he walked guests through an experiment he and older JJK youth completed. Using a handheld device, he showed how technology can enhance the light a plant receives for optimal growth.

“I want people to know how much fun we have here,” Frazier said. “They teach us so much, but at the same time we can have fun with it. Last time we learned about pollinators and how pollen helps plants grow.”

Illinois Deputy Governor Andy Manar praised the initiative as a model for the region.

“The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food Agriculture Nutrition Innovation Center presents a powerful vision for our future — bringing together agriculture, nutrition, technology and wellness under one roof,” Manar said. “This is a space where young people can learn, families can thrive and future careers can begin.”

He called Joyner-Kersee “the pride of both East St. Louis and the state of Illinois.”

State Senator Chris Belt tied the mission back to health and wellness. “Hippocrates once stated, ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,’” Belt said. “This is where young people will learn how to grow food — and how to properly utilize food to become the very best version of themselves.”

Kidwell closed with a story about University of Illinois student and JJK alum Jordan Gully, who is currently interning in Washington, D.C., and hopes to become President of the United States.

“I look forward to the day when the president of this country grew up in East St. Louis,” Oldroyd said. “We are committed to delivering the future scientists, future innovators and leaders. The world needs it. And those future leaders, I believe, can come from East St. Louis.”

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