Outside the iconic Garfield Park Fieldhouse on the West Side, Glydan “Momma” Hoffman stands in a large circle with about 50 people to warm up for a one-mile walk.
She tries to jostle her knees high, one at a time.
“Oh, I hate that one,” Hoffman says with a laugh.
Music blares, and people whoop to the beat. One heel out, arms up. Repeat.
Then come the jumping jacks as they all shout: “P-E-A-C-E runners.”
“What?!”
“Runners.”
“What?!”
Minutes later, they’re off. One big group starts to jog through the park. Hoffman joins a small crowd of women walking briskly. She moves with confidence and ease, something unthinkable for her just five years ago.
Hoffman was about 70 pounds heavier then and on a dozen or so medications for high blood pressure, asthma and other conditions. She was scared she was going to die. At 63, she was already older than her mom and sister, who had both died in their 50s of chronic disease or cancer.
“I’m looking at the newest little granddaughter of mine,” Hoffman recalled. “I’m not gonna watch her grow up,” she thought.
During a telehealth appointment with her doctor as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the physician mentioned that Hoffman lives in a community where people can expect to die earlier than in most other neighborhoods in Chicago. Heart disease is a top killer, and she was at risk.
Her son, Jackie Hoffman Jr., sitting next to her on the couch, overheard the conversation. He had no idea his mom was on so many medications.
“That was the thing that woke the person up inside of me,” he says. “I needed to show up for my mom.”
That moment sparked an idea that not only transformed his mom’s life but has become a source of pride for the West Side. Born in Hoffman’s living room, Peace Runners 773 has now grown into an expansive running and walking and wellness program for West Siders of all ages.
It’s part of a larger effort to improve the health for everyone in the area to help close what’s known as the 20-year “death gap” between West Garfield Park and the Loop. This is the widest life expectancy gap in Chicago and the biggest across neighborhoods of any big city in America, researchers found in 2019.
Finding the ingredients for a healthier life
Jackie Hoffman Jr., 36, and his mom both grew up in Garfield Park. He played Division 1 football at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, then worked as a police officer in Atlanta for a few years before moving back. He says he was drawn home to help take care of his parents and others in his family as they aged.
He was on his own weight-loss journey to come down from more than 300 pounds as an offensive lineman, so he already had the recipe for his mom: Take a walk, and change what you eat.
Glydan Hoffman used a walker and rarely walked in her neighborhood. She was afraid of the violence, but she also feared that her blood pressure might get so high she could pass out. And it was hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables. A lot of people leave the neighborhood to go grocery shopping.
So mom and son started out small: a walk around her backyard every morning around 6 a.m. Then, they went to the park nearby, walking about a mile a day. Jackie Hoffman Jr. would run laps around his mom, encouraging her. She learned how to read food labels and changed what she ate, trading chips and Pepsi for water, oatmeal, fresh fruits and vegetables.
About a year later, she went back to the doctor, and he asked, ‘What are you doing?’”
“I looked at him. I was frightened,” Hoffman says. “‘He said, “Do you know you lost 68 pounds within this year?” I said, ‘No way!’”
She started taking fewer medications. She had more energy. She was so proud, snapping photos of herself on her walks or after doctor’s appointments to share with her son and others.
People in the community started to notice Hoffman on her walks, and some joined in. Jackie Hoffman Jr. and his mom wondered: How many other people don’t know about the life expectancy gap?
In West Garfield Park, where most residents are Black, people can expect to live on average until they’re 67. In the Loop, where the majority are white, it’s 87. Heart disease and homicide are the top drivers of the death gap, followed by opioid overdoses and cancer, according to the Chicago public health department. Stress plays a major role.
To commemorate the Juneteenth holiday in 2020 and help others in the community take care of themselves, the Hoffmans organized a 5K walk and run in Garfield Park. About 20 people showed up as drivers honked to cheer them on.
“The energy was so good,” Jackie Hoffman Jr. says. “I was like, we need to keep this.”
From then on, every Saturday morning, the Hoffmans have walked and run around Garfield Park near the fieldhouse and invited the community to join. They called themselves the Peace Runners because there’s safety in numbers when people walk or run in groups. And movement provides peace to this community, Hoffman Jr. says.
The community bands together
Five years later, it’s common for more than 100 people to show up on a hot Saturday morning in the summer. Even when it’s cold, the Peace Runners are there. They have programs to train walkers into runners, to racing in a marathon. There are strength coaches, yoga instructors and nutrition workshops. There’s a youth run club and the Young At Hearts walking group of seniors that Hoffman leads.
Some fellow Peace Runners call the group family, that it’s changed lives — from improving their own health to reshaping the narrative of Garfield Park to a story of hope.
Porcha Davis is a marathoner who grew up in the neighborhood. She was looking for a community to run with during the isolation of the pandemic when she saw the Peace Runners one day. Now, she manages the nonprofit’s youth program.
“Peace Runners pushes me,” said Davis, a health care researcher. “Sometimes, when you’re not feeling your best, you have that support, you have that community.”
Chicago and the world have taken notice. The Peace Runners have their own logo — a peace sign with wings. Jackie Hoffman Jr. wore his Peace Runners jersey when he ran four marathons this year from Berlin to Tokyo.
He’s put “1968” on his singlet running top, a nod to the lack of big investment in Garfield Park since the riots all those years ago. Another time, he added “290” for the West Side expressway.
“Then, I talk more about our mission, and I tell our story,” Jackie Hoffman Jr. says.
He says that not everyone like his mom lives. He believes that Chicago’s death gap will only narrow if every leader in and around Garfield Park fights to draw in more resources and investment. His efforts are part of a broader community push to improve the conditions in the neighborhood that can lead to premature death, from growing community gardens and advocating for more affordable housing to championing a more than $40 million wellness center, set to open this spring along historic Madison Street.
Jackie Hoffman Jr. is leading the way. He just quit his day job to lead the Peace Runners full time, buoyed by money he and other Peace Runners have fundraised as they race in marathons around the world.
Graduating from walking to running
After Hoffman finishes her walk, she’s barely out of breath. She says she feels excellent as she mingles with other Peace Runners.
She recently ran — she’s graduated from walking — her first 5K. Afterward, she says her 6-year-old granddaughter, the baby she thought she might not live to see grow up, was so excited.
“She said, ‘Grandma, you did it!’” Hoffman recalls. “When I heard that little voice told me ‘I did it,’ it [was] just something in my ear saying, ‘Keep going, keep going. You can’t stop there.’”
Now, Hoffman has her first 8K in sight, her biggest race ever.
“That’s my girl,” Jackie Hoffman Jr. says. “My mom is the key to being who I am today.”
Coming in January: Stories about more solutions from people working to eliminate the death gap in West Garfield Park.
This story was produced as part of a fellowship with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, with support from the center’s Engagement Initiative and the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism and National Fellowship Fund.