Wild Onion Market is our market. We’ll keep dollars local, support local farmers and producers, and help build a sustainable food production and packaging system. Join here!
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As 2022 draws to a close, we hope you’ve had a peaceful holiday season with family and friends. Though the bad in the world is sometimes overwhelming, so is the good — such as the thousands of people that have formed the Wild Onion Market community and are working together to positively impact our local economy, our health, and our planet. All the best to you and yours in 2023. Only together can we open the store in this new year.
7007 N. Clark Update
Major progress is being made on the site’s signage and exterior, and interior demo work is well underway.
John Calhoun, our General Manager, did a LIVE update at the site on 12/19. He toured the store site @ 7007 N. Clark to show us progress on the interior demolition work. Check it out! See what is happening in YOUR store right now.
Site Update Tour:
We’re poised and ready to move on to interior construction work, but need to raise a last chunk of capital to make that happen!
Owner Spotlight
While Cris, a Wild Onion Market Owner and investor, recently visited a coffee cooperative in Costa Rica with his parents, “La Cooperativa,” founded in 1943, he dreamt about his own co-op back home: to “shop at Wild Onion, get to sip a coffee in our store, and the money I spend on groceries is an investment in my own community.”
Thank you for sharing and for playing a role in creating our store, Cris!
A very warm thank you and welcome to the 400+ new Owners that have joined Wild Onion Market this year! We are so close to reaching our goal of 1600 Owners by Spring of 2023.
GM CHALLENGE: CONTRIBUTE WHAT YOU CAN TO OPEN WILD ONION MARKET
From John Calhoun, our General Manager:
The past few weeks I’ve been trying to solve a complicated puzzle: We don’t have enough money to open. I’ll say it again. We don’t have enough money to open Wild Onion Market. I’ve been working with our Board and co-op volunteers to raise the funds we need to open our store.
We’ve been contacting Owners and interested community members like you. We’ve organized events. We launched our GoFundMe campaign. Many of the things we are doing are working, but it’s still not enough. It’s my job to open the store, yet we don’t have enough money. What do I do???
As of today, we now have 1446 owners. If each of us contributed $346 we would be able to raise $500,000, which is about what is left for us to raise. If we put that $500,000 with the almost $700,000 we have already raised, and the $300,000+ we have invested in member equity, and the new member equity we will raise before opening, we will have what is required to leverage the financing we need and pay for our buildout, equipment, inventory, and initial staffing, so we can open our store.
Some of us don’t have an extra $346. Some of us can comfortably give or invest much more. If ALL of us make a pledge to invest or donate what we are able to, we could meet our fundraising goal TODAY and open our co-op in 2023!!
I’m asking all of us to stretch a little bit and see what our capacity is. WE are the ones who have to make it happen!
I am pledging $2,000. For me, this is a lot of money and it is definitely a stretch. It’s also what I’ve decided is the right amount for me. I want you all to know that I’m not just an employee of the co-op, but that I’m also deeply invested and I’m ready to stand alongside all of you as we collectively open the store of our dreams.
I’m asking you to make your pledge HERE
Some additional information on your options:
- Cooperative investment vehicles are available only to Owners living in Illinois. email invest@wildonionmarket.com to find out more!
- Tax-deductible donations can be submitted here, to our fiscal partner. Donations can come from anyone, Owner or not, and are tax-deductible over $25.
- Our GoFundMe is an ongoing effort to reach within, as well as outside of our community, for folks who may want to help and do not need or want a tax-deduction. Funds collected through GoFundMe are subject to less fees for Wild Onion than tax-deductible donations.
I can’t wait to see what we will accomplish together!
Help the Wild Onion Market Community Grow
The goal is to reach 1600 Owners by the time the market opens, hopefully in Spring of 2023 if we can raise remaining funds quickly. Please join us as an Owner if you haven’t yet (scholarships are available). Whether you’re an Owner or not, please help spread the word about Wild Onion Market and our progress. Share and comment @WildOnionMarket on Facebook and Instagram
It takes a strong community to open a co-op market. Contact hello@wildonionmarket.com if you’d like to volunteer in any way, there are lots of opportunities available.
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