We're toasting the end of our wonderful #1000in100 Ownership campaign with a local, sustainable party in true Chicago Market style. We want you to join us at our Farm-to-Market Bash on Sept. 28 at the Ravenswood Event Center.

If we've learned anything this summer, it's that we build Chicago Market Owners one by one, through personal interaction.

And now we're asking our Chicago Market Founding Owners to join us in building our ranks. Because if each one of our Owners recruits just one or two other Owners, we'll reach -- and surpass -- our #1000in100 goal.

We've made it easy for you to spread the Chicago Market word, thanks to our brand new Owner Toolkit. 

Chef Ina Pinkney, a Chicago Market Owner, with Market founder Greg Berlowitz.

Dear Friend,

My name is Ina Pinkney, and for 23 years, I served breakfast to the people of Chicago at Ina’s. I’ve been on television, cooked for celebrities, ran for mayor and written a book. I’m also proud to be an Owner of Chicago Market.

"Feeding kids is different from feeding ourselves. Whether or not we made local or organic choices before we had kids, the stakes are higher when we're responsible for the health and safety of our children."

– Chicago Market Founder Greg Berlowitz 

We think Chicago Market - A Community Co-op will be great for everybody -- young, old, human and even our non-human pals.

Everybody needs high-quality, local, sustainable food, right? We're building a community-owned grocery store to bring healthy food to you and your family - at prices that won't break the bank.

This new food co-op will be especially magical for parents, children and families. Many of our leaders (and even more of our founding owners and volunteers) are parents. Part of why they started this project was to create a better place to shop for good food for their children - our founder, Greg Berlowitz, has two young boys.

Here are seven other reasons why
Chicago Market is great for families.

You asked and Chicago Market answered.

Many of you told us that $250 is a lot to pay all at once to become a Chicago Market Owner, so our ace finance/tech/legal team has developed an ownership payment plan.

Now, you can help build your dream grocery store for as little as $25 a month. 

Photo © Chad Leverenz

This week has been an exciting one here at team Chicago Market. 

We're all realizing something very exciting:

Over the last month, we’ve gotten hundreds of great questions from our website, at events and over email. Everyone wants to learn more about Chicago Market. Here are the answers to the top ten frequently asked questions about the Market.

photo © Liat Shanan

Do you seek out the "prettiest" produce when you're shopping at the grocery store or farmer's market? Well, you may be missing out -- and making an environmentally unfriendly choice -- if you're subjecting your fruits and vegetables to a beauty contest. 

This is the first in an ongoing series of profiles of Chicago Market Owners telling us why the co-op is important to them. 

We've lost our way when it comes to food. Used to be, we knew who grew our green beans, who raised our steaks, who baked our bread. That's rare today. We're rushing through drive-throughs, clicking a few buttons online for pizza, popping open a bag of whatever. I have two kids and work part-time and it's so easy to fall into those routines. 

I founded Chicago Market 18 months ago because I'm a father.