Announcing Up & Under Fest 2018! Join Chicago Market and Uptown United for the first-ever community event at The Wilson Underline! Enter at the southwest corner of Wilson & Broadway, under the L next to the Wilson stop on the Red/Purple Line.

We’re bringing back our Pop-Up Markets with some of the region’s finest growers and producers — PLUS, live bands, kids activities, Uptown and local businesses, wellness activities, tours of the future Chicago Market Co-op location and MORE! Grocery vendors align with Chicago Market’s Purchasing Values. 

Vendor and soundstage lineups to be announced soon! 

NEW OWNER PRIZES

New Owners are automatically entered to win a raffle prize to be drawn at the event. We must reach 2,000 Owners by the end of the year to fund the buildout of our store, so we need your support *today*!! If you’re not yet an Owner, join us now!

FREE EVENT

Come experience the community and the best of local food! An optional gate donation of $10 is suggested. As a first-time event, your RSVP is much appreciated! Proceeds after festival expenses to benefit Chicago Market and Wilson Underline programming.

Come join this community festival to meet and mingle with fellow Owners, celebrate the accomplishments of our community-owned organization, and learn about opportunities to participate in our path forward toward opening our grocery store doors.

Want to bring a friend? The more the merrier! Our first 1,270+ Owners is just the beginning of our community - we’re must grow our Ownership to 2,000 Owners by the end of 2018! 

ABOUT THE WILSON UNDERLINE

The WILSON UNDERLINE seeks to provide the newly renovated CTA Wilson Station with a dynamic public space dedicated to the Uptown neighborhood by providing opportunities for collaborative community programming and creative public engagement; a space that draws the community together and enriches the Wilson Station project from the ground up. Read more and subscribe for updates.

Owner Dinah Barthelmess #1258 loves her Uptown neighborhood. Find out more about one of Chicago Market's newest Owners!

Bring a Buddy To Learn About Chicago Market

Chicago Market isn't just a grocery store. It's a community. And the best part about being part of a community is getting to meet new people and learn about awesome things happening in the city all around you.

That's why Chicago Market is hosting another mixer at My Buddy's. The first one in July was such a success and so much fun, we are doing it again!

Not only can you come learn about the awesome community-owned grocery store coming to Uptown, you can also find out more about some of Chicago Market's close community partners.

Come as you are or, in the spirit of building community, bring a friend with you. It'll be a fun evening of drinks and food (with specials for Chicago Market guests!), community-building and learning. Plus, if you want to become an Owner of Chicago Market (and remember, we need to get to 2000 Owners by the end of this year to fund our store, so we need your support now),
you'll be able to do so right there.

See you there!

No time to read and just want to volunteer? Here ya go; 3 easy ways to get involved:

1. Drop in at our upcoming MORE meeting (Marketing & Owner Recruitment and Engagement) on Aug 21, and see where you might lend a hand.

2. Sign-up for a volunteer shift and event support online - we have easy shifts at Argyle Night Market, our cool new Up & Under Fest, and the super fun My Buddy's Mixer all coming up.

3. Email our Volunteer Coordinator and ask what some of our current needs are and sign up!

Need to hear more? Read on:

Boy, we hate to beg (we’re adults after all), but we’re willing to do so if it will help make Chicago Market a reality! Here’s the story:

In February of 2013, the initial seeds of Chicago Market were officially planted by a small cadre of early Owners who volunteered their time to do all of the work required to legally set up the cooperative, assemble a Board of Directors and spread the word to those who might be interested in becoming Owners of a “cooperative” grocery store.

As you probably know by now, we have a site (#GerberBuilding) and have seriously ratcheted up efforts to increase the number of Owners. Currently, we’re at 1258. Woo-hoo!

Much to our surprise, that small cadre of volunteers has grown only a bit – not nearly enough to meet the demands of our growing enterprise.

And we know why. Along the way we made a colossal mistake – and we’re big enough to own it. We neglected to communicate just how involved and engaged each Chicago Market Owner needs to be!  

As we sought and signed up new Owners, we neglected to say that becoming an “Owner” of a cooperative wasn’t like being an Owner of a for-profit grocery store – where the Owner hires people to do everything required to make the store functional.

Nope. As Owners, the buck stops with us. We’re it. When something needs to be done, one of us has to do it.

Owners are Chicago Market’s worker bees. We are its go-to “staff” for every job that needs to be done – from ongoing commitments to one-off assignments. Here is just a sampling:

Marketing to gain new Owners
Planning, organization, staffing and clean-up for a multitude of Co-op events
   Pop-Up Markets
   Info sessions
   Owner meet-ups
   Community presentations
   Tabling at community fairs and festivals
Website design and management
Data entry and database maintenance
Coordination of volunteer needs, assignments and activities
Communications, including website copy, newsletters, blogs, posters, etc.
Social media communications
Graphic design for all our communications activities
Serving on the Board of Directors
Overseeing the design of the store
Developing partnerships with community organizations
Schlepping signs and marketing materials to various events
Participating on working committees like Owner Engagement (hint!)
Hiring a general manager
Planning and executing the Owner Loan Campaign
Applying for government, bank and other private sector loans
Writing the very email you’re (hopefully, still) reading
Need we go on?

We get that not every Owner has the time to volunteer for Chicago Market. For example, Owners who care for 6 small children under the age of 3, and…. Well, now that we think about it, that’s the only category that really makes sense to us. (We kid.)

We aren’t heartless. We understand first-hand how tough it can be to make the time to help with Chicago Market activities, because virtually every active Owner-Volunteer has a full-time career as well as families to tend to.

So we’re asking…begging, even…for you to join the ranks of Owner-Volunteers and help build the Market that we can eventually claim as our community Co-op – if we quickly increase our Volunteer roles so we can get the 750 new Owners we need by year end to secure funding. 

Here are 3 easy ways to get involved:

1. Drop in at our upcoming MORE meeting (Marketing & Owner Recruitment and Engagement) on Aug 21, and see where you might lend a hand.

2. Sign-up for a volunteer shift and event support online - we have easy shifts at Argyle Night Market, our cool new Up & Under Fest, and the super fun My Buddy's Mixer all coming up.

3. Email our Volunteer Coordinator and ask what some of our current needs are and sign up!

Becoming an Owner of Chicago Market means becoming a working part of our cooperative community. We would love to have you on board as an Owner-Volunteer.

Can we count on you?

PS. Sign up for our volunteer email list and get volunteer opportunities on the first and third Tuesday of every month. Just follow this link and check the Volunteer Opportunities box. You'll get fun, short emails that share upcoming volunteer opportunities so you can plug in when the time's right for you!

More than 100 Chicago Market Owners came together on Saturday, August 4 in the beautiful theatre space on the campus of Truman College to reflect on the (fiscal) year just behind us and look ahead to what’s next.

Here are the 2018 Chicago Market Board of Directors Candidate Statements:

You've seen some Chicago Market posters. You've heard your friends talking about this local, sustainable food co-op coming to the Gerber Building at the Wilson 'L' station. Maybe you visited us at one of our Pop-Ups. But what exactly is Chicago Market?

Come to one of our upcoming information sessions to find out. Owners and Board members will be on hand to answer your questions and tell you more about the Market. And we'll be prepared to sign up new Owners who are ready to buy a stake in this cooperative grocery store.

LOCAL FOOD + COMMUNITY
Chicago Market wants to change the way you shop for groceries. Chicago Market will be a community-owned grocery store that exists to rebuild the connection between food producers and consumers. Powered by its individual Owners, each of whom own a stake in the store, the co-op will feature local, sustainable foods from producers right here in the Midwest.

WHAT'S AN OWNER?
Chicago Market is member-owned, but open to everyone. Owners receive a variety of benefits — both in dollars and in control over the direction of the Market. You'll be a key player in building the co-op community and changing the local-food landscape.

OWNERSHIP BENEFITS.
Cooperative ownership means you hold equity in Chicago Market, and that comes with direct benefits:
** A voice. Owners can be members or leaders of committees and run for the Board of Directors. Owners have voting rights in many matters and have power in shaping Chicago Market. 
** Patronage refunds. Depending on how often you shop at Chicago Market, you may earn an annual patronage refund based on purchases once the store is profitable.
** Savings. Owners are eligible for Owner-only sales and promotions.
** Discounts. Owners receive discounts on classes, workshops and other special events.

HOW MUCH IS A SHARE?
A one-time investment of $250 provides you and your entire household lifetime ownership equity in Chicago Market. Payment plans are available. 

Receive an Owners-only Chicago Market tote bag when you join!

READY TO JOIN? 
Join our vibrant community, and help build your dream grocery store. Become an Owner at www.ChicagoMarket.coop/Join

RSVP Requested

Do you want to learn “MORE” about how you can contribute to making our cooperative grocery a reality?

If your answer is Yes (and we sure hope it is!), then have we got an event for you! A series of them, actually.

Chicago Market’s MORE (Marketing, Owner Recruiting and Engagement) committee meets every other Tuesday. Our committee’s job is to figure out and execute effective ways to spread the word about Chicago Market…encouraging people to become Owners and otherwise engage Owners – just like you – to become a more active part of our Co-op community.

Currently the MORE team is far too small for the huge task at hand. We need, well, “MORE” Owners – and even Owner-curious folks – to join our team and lend a hand. Skill sets and background that can be helpful on this team (but are not required) are - marketing and promotions, writing, social media, community organizing and event planning. But mostly, you need to be excited about your Co-op and willing to lean in.

Interested? RSVP and join a meeting to get involved!

See you soon! (And thanks.)

(We meet in a private residence in Andersonville - we'll email you the address once you RSVP.)

What to expect at the meeting:

This is a working meeting but we want you to have some context for what is going on, so we'll start with an overview of MORE and what we are working on. We'll have a specific agenda of things to work on. Following the meeting, you'll have an opportunity to socialize and ask questions about MORE and what you heard at the meeting. We want your input and ideas as appropriate during the meeting but it's not a brainstorming session, so new ideas may get moved to a parking lot for future consideration.

• 7:00 - 7:15 Intro to MORE and 2018 Owner Growth Plans
• 7:15 - 9:00 Working meeting
• 9:00 - 9:30 Socializing and Q&A

Lakeview Pantry
Minutes: Emily
Present: Emily, Dana, Sofia, Dan, Edward, Anthony, Lee, Grant, Ankit, Kelly, plus three guests - Mark Dawson, Joel Morales, Ellie Schermer

The mixer at My Buddy’s was a blast! Best yet, 10 new Chicago Market Owners came on board that night as a result of hobnobbing with a bunch of buddies from the Co-op!

It happened on July 19, when about 75 Chicagoans showed up at My Buddy’s, a relatively new neighborhood “social grub and pub hub” in Uptown to learn more about what it means to be an Owner of Chicago Market.