Chicago Market Newsletter — June 2023

Happy Pride Month From Chicago Market!

June is Pride Month, a joyful time to celebrate and lift up the LGBTQIA+ community. A key piece of our identity at Chicago Market is that All Are Welcome. We are dedicated to being strong allies and offering a safe and inclusive space for everyone in our community. Chicago Market stands with our LGBTQIA+ neighbors and is proud to say: Happy Pride!

Foodshed Champions

One of our Owners suggested our Newsletter could raise up the activists, advocates, and organizations in our foodshed who are making a difference. We love that because we're all in this work together. Learn more about them and support any way you can. Today we kick off our Foodshed Champions feature with...

Local Food Forum
Journalist Bob Benenson, Owner #646, covers the Chicago area local food scene — markets, farmers, chefs, home cooks, educators, and advocates — in his newsletter, Local Food Forum. And, he just recently launched a podcast, Local Food Rules. Episode #2 even features our Uptown Farmers Market!

Be sure to subscribe and follow Local Food Forum on social media so you'll be in the know about all the wonderful local food happenings in our community. 

Thank you, Bob, for all you do!

Hold the Date — Annual Meeting

Being part of a co-op means attending the Annual Owners Meeting, and we're planning it for late afternoon/early evening on Sunday, September 24. Hold the date on your calendar and we'll get time and location announced soon.

Follow along on the process of your store with this visual of our Timeline.

Here are the most recent progress steps:

• Our bank loans are firming up and we expect to close on them shortly.
• We've made great progress recently with the CTA in getting the specs for our elevator approved; we'll be ordering it soon.
• We are moving ahead with three-phase electrical power, AND the two components capable of delaying our progress have been engineered out of the system entirely. Electrical service is no longer considered a major timeline issue.
• We have chosen to move ahead with our used equipment purchase, which saves us money and means we're at an exciting moment: WE OWN SOME OF OUR STORE'S EQUIPMENT! We'll be using some, selling some that is not appropriate for us, and of course also buying more, but this is a great start to our equipment purchasing, at a fraction of the cost.
• And we are finishing construction documents and will soon begin the permitting process for principal construction.

Uptown Farmers Market Community Corner

Our farmers market celebrates organizations in our community by providing them a booth at our market. Be sure to visit them. Upcoming Community Corner participants are:

June 14 — Institute of Cultural Affairs, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
June 21 —  GameOn! Sports
June 28 — Swedish Hospital
July 5 — Citizens' Climate Lobby

• Board Meeting — July 10, 7:00-9:00pm (Note this is a week later due to the holiday)
• Uptown Farmers Market — every Wednesday from 2:30 - 7:00pm

News from Our Business Owners

Collective Resource Compost: 

"We’re happy to be donating our composting services for this year’s Uptown Farmers Market produced by Chicago Market. The new market location is so lovely! Much of what Tamales Express serves can be composted including corn husks, corn cobs, mango and the wooden sticks they’re served on. If you bring your own fork, you should be able to have a nearly zero waste dinner. If you’d like to have a one-on-one chat about all of the different possible ways you could integrate composting and zero waste into your home and workplace, we’re planning on being present on these dates: June 14, July 12, August 9, September 13 and October 11. If you can’t wait until then, fill out the form on our website to get connected with our customer service team."

IRPINO Real Estate
IRPINO presents their next Local Business Spotlight featuring Michelle Fire, owner of Tweet Let's Eat (5024 N Sheridan Rd), a local restaurant that has been a staple in Uptown for over 20 years.

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Get Involved

Your Co-op is a nationally recognized project that will have incredible impact on our local economy and the local food system. Invest in Preferred Shares now—you benefit and your Co-op can lower its reliance on bank debt. 

 

Not up for investing but want to help your Co-op financially?

• 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.