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Mission Statement

The Northwest Illinois Food Co-op provides organically grown food and sustainable grocery items and serves as an outlet for local producers in the region. This cooperative grocery store promotes healthy lifestyles for individuals and families in Jo Daviess and its surrounding counties through education and excellent service. We are dedicated to the ideal of being active participants in the community.

A Little History

The members of the Northwest Illinois Food Co-op steering committee have been meeting for the last year. We've just completed and submitted a grant to the USDA for matching funds to help finance a feasibility study to determine the practicality of opening a co-op grocery store.
Members of our committee have visited a number of co-ops in the Tri-state area and have had long talks with managers and met with officials from the National Cooperative Grocers Association and the Food Co-op Initiative.
We've looked at and reviewed potential sites in both Galena and Elizabeth. We've talked to potential suppliers and vendors and to friends and neighbors about what they'd like to see in a co-op and how a co-op operators. We've probably even talked to you about our plans.
We've already completed our own informal Survey Monkey and we're pleased with the feedback and encouragement.
Now we'd like to bring the community up to date. We want to explain where the group's been, where it's going next and outline the necessary steps in preparation to opening a store in the coming year!