What is the Prairie Food Co-op? Learn this weekend in Lombard
Chances are, if you live in Lombard, you've seen the name Prairie Food Co-op somewhere.
Still have no idea what it is?
The group is hosting a community meeting from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Helen Plum Library auditorium, 110 W. Maple St., to educate Lombard residents and people from the surrounding area about Prairie Food Co-op's mission and its goal to reach 800 members as soon as possible.
"A food co-op is basically a grocery store that is organized and owned by thousands of people in a community," said Jeremy Nash, co-founder of the Prairie Food Co-Op. "It's democratically run. We try to support locally grown and locally produced food and items, so money stays in our community. We carry more organic and sustainably produced food. And even more than that, it's about transparency - labeling and letting people know what's in their food."
The co-op has 570 members. Each has bought up to five shares that cost $200 each to get the store up and running.
At 250 members, the co-op was able to move forward with a market study. At 600, owners will start working on a floor plan.
But the next big number is 800. That's when the group will sign a lease for a building north of Roosevelt Road and south of North Avenue in Lombard.
"We are pleased about where we are," Nash said, adding that co-ops typically take five to seven years to organize. "We're on year four, so we are definitely on track, if not a little ahead."
The group has hosted two community meetings since organization efforts have been underway - one in spring 2013 and another this July - and owners have plans to start scheduling informational gatherings more frequently to reach people who weren't immediately drawn into the idea.
"We've gotten all the low-hanging fruit," Nash said. "Now, in this phase, you really have to present to people what you're doing, that we've got a plan, we're following a plan and it's working."
Jacqueline Hannah of the Food Co-op Initiative, a national food co-op consulting agency, will speak at Saturday's event, to share the benefits co-ops bring to the communities they open in. Owners say the Prairie Food Co-op will serve residents in all of Lombard and Villa Park and parts of Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Downers Grove and Oakbrook Terrace.
For information or to RSVP to the event, visit prairiefood.coop/events or facebook.com/PrairieCoop.