Several local, independent grocers have disappeared from Oak Park in recent years. But a brand new one could be in the works, this one unlike anything currently operating in the village.
A dozen or so families in northeast Oak Park are looking to form a food cooperative. People would likely pay a membership fee, gaining part ownership in the co-op, and food would be supplied by local farmers.
Jenny Jocks Stelzer — one of the founders of the effort, along with Oak Parker Cheryl Muñoz — said there’s no real community gathering space or grocery store near Austin Boulevard and Chicago Avenue. The group hopes the food co-op could eventually fill that hole in the village, and link the area with neighboring Chicago.
“We’re not interested in creating a for-profit, competitive business here. That’s not what this is about,” said Jocks Stelzer. “This is definitely a social justice mission. We’re into cooperation and building our community into something we want it to be, and sharing that with others. We want this to be a bridge over into Austin.”
The group started meeting about three months ago, hoping to determine whether there was interest in a local food co-op and found a wealth of it. They’ve started a Facebook page that has 100 members, and a Twitter handle (@OPCo_op) to let people follow the progress.
Jocks Stelzer, 35, estimates they’re on a three-year path before opening an actual storefront. Right now they’re in the exploratory phase, gathering input, and somewhere down the line they’ll have to start raising money. They want to build a coalition of families across the Oak Park area, to share their gardens, learn about canning, and ramp up enthusiasm before the eventual brick-and-mortar location comes about.
Muñoz, 35, said the easy part will be figuring out where to get the food. She expects some difficulty in hammering out the eventual business plan and coming up with the startup costs. Along with fundraising, they’ll also explore grants in the realms of job creation, public health and food security to help bring the store to fruition.
“We don’t have any business plan yet. I think we’re still trying to just feel out what the needs of the community are,” Muñoz said. “Business people will throw around numbers to us, but we really don’t know what those mean.”
One model to follow would be the Dill Pickle Food Co-op in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. They started the effort about five years ago and are still working to become self-sustaining, according to Lisa Junkin, president of their board of directors. But they’ve made progress, as the store has built a following and is now trying to move into a bigger space from its current location at 3039 W. Fullerton Ave., where they’ve been since December 2009.
Junkin said Oak Park and Logan Square share a similarly strong sense of community, and she believes the village could have the same success.
“I think we were really successful in getting the support we needed because we were really pounding the pavement at the farmers markets and at public events, but also because there was a real excitement,” she said. “Logan Square is a great community for the food co-op, but I think Oak Park will be very similar in many ways. I’m really confident that that group will be successful in getting the support they need, but it does take time and a lot of relationship-building in the community.”
They plan to continue building relationships next Thursday, March 22, with a presentation on the food co-op concept during a Plan It Green community forum. That will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Oak Park Conservatory, 615 Garfield St.
Iris Yipp — a 35-year Oak Parker who also owns the Magic Tree Bookstore — was part of a local food co-op when she first moved to the village. The effort lasted decades and had around 40 or so families, storing food in basements and garages, but that died out when Whole Foods Market opened in River Forest and with the growing popularity of the Oak Park Farmers Market.
These things seem to go in cycles, and she can see a place for a food co-op to capitalize again locally.
“Everything goes through a cycle,” Yipp said. “Ours was in action for quite a long time, but things end. And this is a new group with new enthusiasm that I think might be able to do the same thing if people feel like they have a stake in it.”