“Chicago officials revealed Tuesday they’re considering opening public markets across the city, pivoting from their 2023 concept of creating a single municipal-owned grocery store.”
The original report recommendation was for a proof-of-concept grocery store, possibly leading to 3 new stores, all owned by the city. Fascinating to see the analysts had suggested an annual subsidy of $130,000 would be necessary for just one store location.
The article credits the Food Equity Council for the change in direction from grocery store to farmers markets. Congratulations to these grassroots leaders.
There are many questions as to how this welcome change might be successfully undertaken, what type of market is best, and how to use properly use farmers markets to address food insecurity.
I certainly hope they avail themselves of the expertise in the national field of 4500+ entities that run the 9,000 or so farmers markets in the US.
STILL, it is a monumental and bold decision, and one that will benefit farmers and neighborhoods in the Midwest’s world-class city.
“We want this to be an example that we can set for other cities who are looking to do this type of food equity work, but ultimately, for the specifics of how many; and who’s going to own and operate; who’s going to pay? We haven’t worked that out yet,” the mayor’s office spokesperson said.”
* There is an unfortunate use of the apostrophe in the article, but one might assume they mean farmers markets even though they use the term farmer’s market (does that mean one farmer?) and public market interchangeably. Yes I’m being a bit snarky, but my pet peeve is the lack of a consistent style choice in writing these terms which makes it hard for the public to understand what we mean.
**The article also suggests that only 2 cities operate markets which is far from accurate. If they mean shed (public) markets, there are quite a few and if they mean open-air farmers markets, there are also likely hundreds managed by their municipality. That is based on information from PPS, from national surveys done by my employer Farmers Market Coalition, and through my consulting for projects that include markets managed by small and large towns and cities.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 