Please Welcome Corey Pagán-Banks to the RPFC Board!

Corey, Owner #115, has been appointed to the Board of the Rogers Park Food Co-op.

Corey, who is a fixture of the Rogers Park community, also works with A Just Harvest and coaches youth football.

Thank you for becoming an Owner of our very own Rogers Park Food Co-op. As an Owner who joined prior to October 15, 2016, you are eligible to run for the Board. Now is the time to consider how you might like to contribute to the development of our co-op? With a New Year upon us, it is a great opportunity to engage with something new. Be part of creating something wonderful here in Rogers Park. We have made tremendous strides in moving the co-op forward in 2016 and are entering an exciting stage where we will be making many important decisions like site selection, product guidelines and sourcing!

The Co-op has a total of 9 Board positions. Roux Nolan, Adam Schwartz, Mary Meyer and Linda Prucher were elected to the Board in 2016, Hank Rouse and Corey Pagán-Banks were voted in to fill vacancies and will be running in the upcoming elections, that leaves 3 positions open. We invite you to attend a Board meeting to learn more about our work. Board Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the the month, Dec, 1st and 15 and January 5th and 19th at Unity in Chicago, 1925 W. Thome from 7 - 8:30 pm.  RSVP Here:

We will be holding 2 candidate information sessions early next year on Saturday, Jan. 7th and Tuesday, Jan. 10th. All interested candidates are required to attend an information session prior to submitting an application for the Board.

We will be sending out more information in early January, in the meantime please give consideration to running for a Board position, You may review our by-laws on at our website, www.rogersparkfoodcoop.com/bylaws

All of us working on the co-op are very happy that we have something positive to work on that will make a difference in the life of our community, our shoppers and our farmers.If you would like to have a conversation about the work of the Board I will be happy to meet with you, [email protected]

Thank you again for your ongoing support, Together, we can make our co-op a reality.

After our highly successful September Ownership Campaign the RPFC is entering a new and exciting phase in our development. During the second week of December, The Board of Directors will spend three consecutive days setting the priorities and charting the next phase for 2017. The retreat will center around 4 major themes:

1. Launching the Market Feasibility Study
2. Initiating the Business Plan
3. Prioritization and Reorganization of the Co-op
4. Diversity Training and Outreach.

Stay-tuned for new announcements and initiatives and get involved where you can, this is going to get exciting!

The Rogers Park Food Co-op would like to wish all of our community a happy holiday season! Whichever holiday you celebrate, we hope it is full of joy and love.

So that we may take some time to relax and celebrate with our friends and family, the Rogers Park Food Co-op has no events planned for the month of December. Please continue to check our Facebook Page for the most up-to date information regarding upcoming events and activities.

The Board of the Rogers Park Food Co-op would like to thank all of our supporters and Owners for the tremendous success we've had in 2016, and we look forward to continued progress in 2017.

Happy Holidays!

By Hank Rouse, Owner #71

11-4-2016: I awoke early and boarded a red line car filled with Cubs fans headed down to the parade. In a moment, I honestly thought “It’s Friday, I should go back to bed.” So happy that I stayed on course, and proceeded to the Broadway Amory Park 2nd floor kitchen, home of the PGP Community Cooking School

Peterson Garden Projects “Fresh Fridays – Brain Food” was a fun and rewarding experience. We had an informal talk with Syeda Farid, Registered Dietitian at Swedish Covenant Hospital and Galter Life Center, learning about foods to maintain a healthy brain. She gave us specific examples of how to incorporate portions in moderation, rather than going overboard as most Americans do. We even learned how to make homemade cheese. Who Knew, I will certainly have to YouTube that! All the while Chef Fresh, Peterson Garden Project’s Resident Chef, and others readied the kitchen. Not only did we get to watch Chef Fresh, we learned some techniques like how to juice a lime with a spoon, or how to use the skin from the avocado to take the pit off your knife. Or how to ALWAYS add Black Pepper to any dish with turmeric as the black pepper with enhance the bioavailability 7 to 8 fold.

We tasted two different types of dark chocolate, and made: Guacamole with Toasted Pepitas, Golden Paste (sorta like a puree of turmeric and ginger) which we then turned into Golden Milk; not even close to a homemade almond or cashew milk, and something you would not pour over your cereal either. Then we finished it with a Blueberry Walnut Salad. Who knew candied almonds were so simple to make. This budding cook learned LOTS, and is excited for his next class!

If you are ever looking for something to do, I'd check out PGP.
(Also Hank has a coupon code for some of their classes.  Just msg him.)

The Rogers Park Business Alliance is happy to announce that our rebate program is expanding this year to include ALL independently-owned businesses in Rogers Park!

Yes, it's that very special time of year!
Shop local in Rogers Park and get $50 back!

Starting November 25th through December 31, 2016.

Collect $100 or more in receipts from at least 3 different independently-owned businesses in Rogers Park and receive a $25 rebate.

Collect $150 or more and receive a $50 rebate.

That’s a good deal for the people on your gift list, for Rogers Park and for you.

For more information, rules & boundaries, visit www.rpba.org/live-love-shop.