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 plan would begin with one market in a location that “is accessible via public transit, addresses an access gap, has community support and is a destination that drives economic vitality in the community,” Deputy Mayor Kenya Merritt said in a statement to the Sun-Times.
“After reviewing the study with the Food Equity Council and other key partners in the food and retail sectors, we concluded that a municipally-owned market should represent one tactic within a broader, multi-faceted strategy with clearly articulated goals that would support the range of diverse actors in Chicago’s food ecosystem and cultivate food retail talent,” Merritt said.
The number of public markets depend on what “the city can do,” according to a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office. “The goal is multiple markets. We ultimately need proof of concept; so that’s one store. And then if we can decide how to open up multiple, then we will do that … that’s what we are working towards.”
The Chicago Tribune first reported the city’s new plan on Tuesday.
Supporting farmers markets
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s initial proposal for a city-owned grocery store, based somewhere in the South and West sides, had few details when it was announced September 2023.
A feasibility study by consulting firm HR&A soon followed, which detailed how the idea would be possible and benefit neighborhoods that have seen a large number of grocery stores close over the last decade.
“In the absence of private sector action or commitment to provide sustainable grocery options, it is necessary for the city to play a role in creating and sustaining grocery services in neighborhoods that lack grocery access,” according to the August 2024 report.
Chicago would be the first large U.S. city if it owned and operated a grocery store — only two municipalities, St. Paul, Kansas, and Baldwin, Florida, operate a market, the report said.
But now the city is moving in the direction of more farmer’s markets versus a traditional brick-and-mortar grocery store, according to Anton Seals Jr., founding member of the city’s Food Equity Council and lead steward of Grow Greater Englewood.
The Food Equity Council is a cross-sector group appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022. It works to bring community food experts together with city officials to find equitable solutions to low food access.
“The Food Equity Council informed us that they wanted a municipally owned grocery/market structure that would actually support the infrastructure that’s already here,” a mayor’s office spokesperson said.
Seals said the change was made to make sure there will be “more nutrient-dense and local agriculture across the city.”
“This is in conjunction with the community. So it’s important that it not be framed as something for downtown. This is not something for downtown at all,” he said.
According to Seals, the city plans to collaborate to expand farmers’ markets across all neighborhoods, enhance existing ones and strengthen partnerships with local agricultural producers — not just within the city but at the county, state and regional levels.
Still, the public markets are a long way from coming to fruition, Seals indicated.
“We’re still ongoing in our kind of build-out of what this would look like,” he said. “I think our first step is going to be able to coordinate and support what we currently have. So definitely the city is taking an asset-based approach.”
There are 30 farmers markets in Chicago listed on the city’s 2024 schedule. Six are located on the South and West sides.
“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.