Lakeview Pantry
Minutes: Emily
Present: Ankit, Jen, Dana, Dan, Sara, Lee, Grant, Greg, Sunny, Sofia, Edward

Just two years ago, Sara Rodites, Owner #937, had never heard of composting. Growing up in suburban Pittsburgh, the concept of reducing the amount of trash she produced was not on her radar.

Now a Chicagoan of 6 years, Sara throws away just about one grocery bag full of trash per month. I sat down with Sara to talk about her transition to a zero-waste lifestyle, how she still buys ice cream, and why zero waste worked better than KonMari to bring light and simplicity to her life.

Tell us your name and who else shares your fridge.

My name is Daniel Stein (Owner #967) and my partner’s name is Milena Ang. Our fridge serves two – plus any friends or loved ones who visit us.

Why are you a Chicago Market Owner?

Just how big a container would you need to hold all the non-recyclable, non-compostable waste your family accumulates in a year?

Zero waste devotee, blogger and author Bea Johnson can fit the waste from her family of four (count ‘em) from 2017 in...

DO YOU…

…have a green thumb you’d like to get dirty?

…not have a clue how to grow veggies but are eager to learn?

…love getting to know other foodies who share your values?

…want to be able to boast to friends and foes alike that you grew the food on your plate?

Led by our Zero Waste team and our ongoing partnership with Zero Waste Chicago, Chicago Market Owners caught a film screening of the documentary Wasted! The Story of Food Waste this past fall where we learned that a head of lettuce can take 25 years to decompose in the landfill. How can that be?

Lakeview Pantry
Minutes: Emily
Present: Dana, Anthony, Ankit, Grant, Sunny, Jen, Lee, Sara, Greg, Dan, Edward

Guests: Angela, Audrey and Justin

Hey Chicago Market Owners! Sunny here, one of your new Board members elected this past July. This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Up and Coming Food Co-op Conference with over 300 co-op enthusiasts. I'm pretty new to the start-up and co-op world, and I couldn't be more grateful to the Chicago Market Board for sending me up to Milwaukee for a couple days of awesome learning. My biggest takeaways:

Like a lot of people who become Chicago Market Owners, Leah Lawson and her husband, Ben Nunez, simply want to feed themselves and their kids, Mirabella and Kai, healthy, local, organic and sustainable foods at a competitive price.

And in her professional capacity as Executive Programs Manager at FamilyFarmed, a Chicago-based nonprofit that’s considered a national leader in building the Good Food movement,

Spend even a small amount of time on the Chicago Market website, and you know “community” is central to us. The Co-op cares so deeply about community, in fact, we made it a part of our founding mission. Heck - the word is even in our name! We call ourselves