On April 17th, Dill Pickle Food Co-Op members and community members celebrated the groundbreaking of their new location. Off the blue line in Logan Square, the new location will expand Dill Pickle’s retail space from 1,100 square feet to 6,500 square feet.  The long awaited location will be able to offer a greater array of merchandise including an expanding dry goods, bulk foods, dairy, produce and meats. Plans for the new store include fresh prepared foods, deli bar, juice bar and a small community room.  The increase of retail space has enabled Dill Pickle to join the National Co-op Grocers, an association of almost 200 food co-ops nationwide that leverage buying power and will allow Dill Pickle to take advantage of purchasing discounts.

As a Co-Op, Dill Pickle is owned and governed by its members, and as such, the project was funded in part by its’ members.  CCLF also helped to finance the new location by giving Dill Pickle a $1.86 million dollar construction loan.  This loan will enable Dill Pickle to offer more healthy food to the greater community.  The larger space will also enable Dill Pickle to create 18 new living-wage jobs.

A strong proponent for the local community, Dill Pickle will prioritize sourcing from local businesses and Chicago’s growing local food economy.  Dill Pickle is working with over 100 local vendors, including 30 small sustainable farms.

Lincoln Stannard, Lycrecia Parks and Chelsi Cicekoglu with Alderman Carlos Rosa at the Dill Pickle Groundbreaking

The cooperative also has strong local support from a variety of community organizations and leadership within and outside of the Logan Square community.  Alderman Carlos Rosa and State Representative Will Guzzardi both spoke at the ground breaking.  On the cooperative, Alderman Rosa said, “Multinational corporations open up in different communities in the city of Chicago every day.  When they open up in a community, they’re not often looking to build community.  They’re looking for ways to extract profit.  The beautiful thing about Dill Pickle is that they’re looking to build community.”

The new location is expected to open in early Fall 2017.