Bringing Dan Arnett, our general manager, onboard this spring is an exciting step forward for your Co-op. So how does the Board manage and guide him and make sure he opens the grocery store we, the Owners, have all been dreaming of?

Hello, Cooperators!

Chicago Market commissioned a new market study recently by G2G – a firm that largely specializes in food co-op market analysis. While we have had two other studies in the past, the market is always evolving, as are our plans and opportunities. We also need to have fresh data to aid in our capitalization efforts. That data is in – and it looks very promising!

Tomorrow marks the launch of the Uptown Farmers Market! We are very excited to be furthering the connection between local producers and local consumers. As we seek to utilize our parking lot for this purpose, we are also very mindful of our unhoused neighbors residing in the space and the need for dignity and respect in all that we do. We write today with an update on our efforts related to people experiencing houselessness and our communications to date to ensure the success of our new farmers market activities for all involved.

Chicago Market is proud to announce that we've been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Chicago Region Food System Fund to support our work building long-term food system resilience in our region.

Dear Owners,

We would first like to apologize for not bringing you into this situation earlier, as well as for the pain this situation has caused for everyone involved. As alluded to in last week's listening session, we wanted to update everyone regarding the ongoing efforts related to people experiencing houselessness. We are appreciative for everyone's patience as we continue our efforts which admittedly are outside our area of expertise. Needless to say, we still have a lot to learn about the complexities involved in this situation and are committed to learning and doing better as we move forward.

We have been working on specific actions we can take as a board that we feel will address the overarching concerns of everyone involved. This communication is to provide an update on the work we’ve done, knowing there is more work yet to do. Our primary focus is on addressing housing for our neighbors.

To the Chicago Market Community,

As a community-owned organization, Chicago Market values all members of our community - not just those who are Owners, but all who reside in our Uptown neighborhood. One member of our community who is experiencing houselessness is residing in our parking lot. As Chicago Market is unable to allow people to live in our parking lot, we have been working to address this in the most humane way possible. Today we are writing to provide a brief explanation of what has occurred, what we have learned, and what we plan to do next.

In the world of start-up food co-ops, there are two critical decisions boards make that can make or break the success of the project. One is the site where the co-op will be built, and the other is who will run the operations of the co-op.

"The general manager search team and I have been laser focused on hiring the right general manager for our project."

One of the most critical factors in the success of our store is hiring a general manager with the skills we need. What are those skills and knowledge that person needs? Here's Dana McKinney, the chair of our General Manager Search Team to tell you all about it.

We have big news. Chicago Market's Board has voted to move forward with building our amazing grocery store together at the former CTA 'L' station! We're pleased to have come to a new agreement with the CTA designed to make our project stronger. Our next step is to finalize things in a new lease. 

Sometimes it’s the very small things that impact you the most and that happened to me recently.