Justin Booz '10 and Monica Wizgird '08 found Cooperation Operation, turn former toxic waste site into community garden

A formerly vacant, fenced-off lot poisoned by toxic soil is the last place residents in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood expected to find signs of life.

Instead, a group of local activists have redeemed the space -- formerly the site of a paint processing factory -- to create a robust community garden organizers hope can feed the entire Far South Side neighborhood -- and then some.

"This had been a vacant lot my entire life," Justin Booz told DNAinfo Chicago. "About 10 years ago, this was a toxic waste site. I wasn't allowed to come back here and play. There was all sorts of contamination."

Booz, 25, is a Pullman resident and co-founder of Cooperation Operation, the group behind the lot's dramatic turnaround.