G Herbo, Dion's Chicago Dream team up to expand food access: 'Nutrition is a right, not a privilege'

CHICAGO - In rap and hip-hop music there's nothing better than when two artists put their heads together and come up with something special.

G Herbo's latest collaboration tackles a big problem. It's a problem his collaborator has worked for years to address.

Dion Dawson, a fellow South Side native, bonded with the famous Chicago rapper over their shared desire to uplift their community.

"I started Dion's Chicago Dream to fight food insecurity, but really focusing on accessing quality. Nutrition is a right, not a privilege," Dawson said.

When the two sat down together they realized they had more in common than they thought. 

"I just wanted to be able to provide like an outlet for kids, not just only therapy, just to show them that somebody cared," G Herbo said.

Two years ago, Dion set out to put a dent in food insecurity in Chicago. He can really say he has done just that by bringing healthy, fresh food to hundreds of homes with "dream deliveries."

"Me being homeless, most of my childhood, I saw what living in the gap was like. I said, okay, I'm starting my organization. I wanted to make sure I remembered all of those days, I might have been at home, but I didn't have any access to fresh produce," Dawson said. "And so we're starting our [organization] and starting Dion Chicago Dream, we found a way to master last mile delivery. So that when we're talking about food insecurity is not people meeting us where we are. It's us meeting them where they are."

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G Herbo's initiative makes mental health professionals available to young people who otherwise wouldn't have access to therapy.

"Just to like, change the narrative and get back to the youth where they want to do right or do better. You know, when you don't really provide opportunity for people you can't blame them for, you know, the decisions that they make, or, you know, certain circumstances that they're in because, in a lot of cases, that's all they have," G Herbo said.

Physical well-being and mental health reflect one another and that's why Dion and G Herbo partnered up to widen their reach in the city they're proud to call home.

"What he's doing is important, and it's helping a lot of people and is actually making a difference in a lot of lives. You can't really focus mentally, you can't be there, if you're hungry. You know, I'm saying like, hunger creates anger, it creates frustration, it creates depression, all these different emotions."

To date, Dion's organization has served more than 200,000 lbs. of fresh produce to nearly 66,000 families, and G Herbo plans to help them reach hundreds more. 

"Week in and week out we're going to have people move from food insecurity to food secure," Dawson said.