Chicago Market Newsletter — August 2024
Dan Visits Amish Farms
Being a different kind of grocery store, one focused on bringing local foods to us all, doesn't just happen. There is not a simple "local food supply chain" for us to tap into, so our General Manager and his team need to build the relationships and the supply chain we need.
Dan had a great farm tour full of learning and smashing of preconceptions recently. Well, and also some terrific zucchini relish:
"I have worked in cooperative grocery since the late 1990’s as an executive manager. In all that time, it has been a true joy to work with many ethical growers, ranchers, and makers. I have had personal connections with people from many backgrounds and walks of life. However, I had never been to an Amish farm or home. That is, until this month..." [read the rest of the story here]
Hats and T-Shirts!
We've got stylish new hats and t-shirts for sale! Buy yours at our booth at the Uptown Farmers Market any Wednesday (or this Thursday at Argyle Night Market), and show your Chicago Market pride.
CONSTRUCTION PERMIT
There is good progress being made on our construction permit!
There are multiple permit reviews involved in a project like ours – 14 in fact – and we need them ALL approved in order to move forward with construction. At the moment we have approval for nine of them – things like: zoning, electrical, plumbing, landmark, and structural plans.
There are three others we are awaiting word on from our second round of submissions. And there are two more that we are making some modest edits to for resubmission, which should take a week or two for approval.
We’re very pleased with the pace of City review and our store design team have been great about addressing permit review concerns and quickly redrawing to meet the City’s needs.
BANK LOAN
We have all needed materials in to the bank, including a recent rework of an SBA loan application, and now await the SBA approval.
Remember, we need both PERMITS and BANK LOAN in place in order for us to start construction. We’re as eager as you are and things are moving, but we are not quite to the finish line with both government agencies. Stay tuned!
Save the Date
Our Annual Owner meeting takes place the afternoon of September 22, 2024. Stay tuned for details.
Run for the Board
We elect new Board members every year in conjunction with our Annual Meeting — coming in September this year. If you'd like to be a more integral part of the success of your Co-op, consider running for the Board. To learn about what's involved, email Dana, talk with other current Board members at our Uptown Farmers Market booth on Wednesdays, and RSVP to attend:
So, You Want to Be a Board Member
Join Chicago Market Board VP and chair of the Personnel Committee, Dana McKinney in a zoom, Monday, August 19 at 7:00pm, to learn what it means to be a Board Member for our start-up food co-op. She’ll review what the Board does, the skills that typically make a Board Member successful, the time commitments involved, and what it means to be a "working board" versus a "governing board".
- So, You Want to Be a Board Member - August 19, 7:00pm
- Board Meeting — September 3, 7-9:00pm (not on Monday as usual due to holiday)
- Uptown Farmers Market - Wednesdays, 2:30 - 7:00pm, Sunnyside Mall
News from Our Business Owners
"Chicago Fair Trade has a couple of offers we'd like to share with the Chicago Market community:"
The Chicago Fair Trade Museum is offering an ongoing 10% discount to all Chicago Market Owners when you shop at the Museum Store! Located just a few blocks north of Chicago Market's future store at 4704 N Broadway, the museum store stocks a wide range of fair trade gifts and delicious food, including Palestinian olive oil from Canaan, Chicago Fair Trade coffee roasted by Metropolis, and chocolate from Divine, the world's only Fairtrade-certified, farmer-owned chocolate company.10% discount at Alaska Fresh
Midwest-based fishmonger Alaska Fresh is offering Chicago Market Owners an exclusive 10% discount for one month only! Alaska Fresh's transparent and small supply chain not only brings healthy and sustainably harvested Alaskan seafood to the US, but supports coastal Alaskan communities whose livelihoods depend on fishing. To redeem your code, head to Alaska Fresh's online store and use code CHICAGOFAIRTRADE2024 (valid Tue Aug 13 - Fri Sep 13)."Our Zero Waste Bags are really helping people to clear out their shame trash — that stuff you hold onto because you feel bad about it ending up in a landfill. 24 waste streams? Wow! Find all the info here. We make it easy because that’s what we do."
"Core to our mission is the scaling of regenerative agriculture to accelerate humanity's transition to a sustainable food system. We cultivate mushrooms using organic byproducts, predominantly from row crop agriculture and lumber processing. We convert these raw materials into a food source for our mushrooms: their substrate. In doing so, we not only produce a protein-rich, whole organic superfood, but we also generate an impressive soil amendment as our byproduct: spent substrate (SMS).The SMS has catalytic potential to help aid in the switch from conventional to regenerative. It improves plant and soil health through the addition of fungi and other organic matter. We have partnered with a handful of regenerative growers over the past two years and have learned from them. They have seen soil turn from grey dust to black loam. They tell us that they have higher yields and the plants are more resilient when planted using a portion of our SMS.
We would like to get more of our SMS into the soil to grow more nutrient dense food for our communities. The SMS is available at our West Town facility (320 N Oakley Blvd, Chicago) for FREE to growers and home gardeners! You can sign up for a time to come and pick up as much as you can muster."
Get Involved
- Donate any amount here. (can be tax-deductible and recurring)
- Level Up your Ownership if you're not already a Cultivating Owner.
- Donate to our Ownership Grant Program.
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