Chicago Market has always held the internationally recognized Seven Cooperative Principles as guides and we've committed to following them in our Bylaws and Policy Governance documents.

But we know we can hold ourselves accountable to more, so it's exciting that at the Board's recommendation, our Owners have now also approved and added six additional principles to guide us in our work.

Candidates for the Board of Directors are asked a series of questions to help the Owners of Chicago Market make an informed decision. Here is the response from our candidate this year:

During this year’s Annual Meeting, in addition to the traditional vote for Board member candidates you see each year, we have an additional item which are the following proposed Bylaw amendments. These proposed amendments were made after months of deliberation, review, revisions, etc. and were unanimously approved by your Board to be brought forward to the Owners for a vote. To that end, we strongly encourage a yes vote for the adoption of all amendments.

Today Chicago Market was selected by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to receive
over $5 million in grant funds to
make our store a reality!

Much has happened since we provided our last update on the project and we're excited to share that there’s been quite a bit of activity in the past few months at Chicago Market.

We're feeling pretty excited this week!

One of our strengths is that we adhere to the Seven Cooperative Principles and Number 2 is Democratic Member Control.

So how does that work?

Launching Uptown's first farmers market last year was a pretty big initiative for us. And the Uptown Farmers Market will be back in 2022!

As we look forward to planning for the second year, the Board takes full analysis of the first season seriously. Director Kate Grimm, part of the farmers market team, presented an overview of facts and learning in a recent Board meeting.

One of the coolest things about co-ops is that they communicate regularly with each other and share information. It's Cooperative Principle #6 and a great example that we've benefitted from is this:

We're reaching the point in our development where there are a LOT of moving parts to keep track of, so we have an exciting volunteer to introduce who is helping our GM manage it all.