Latest news with #IllinoisGroceryInitiative
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pritzker unveils new grocery store for Venice community
VENICE, Ill. – Venice, Illinois, residents have been without a grocery store for some time. Now, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is coming to town to announce a new grocery store coming to this community. Thursday morning, Pritzker announced that a new grocery store is to be built in the future, and the funding for the project is through the Illinois Grocery Initiative. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'Illinois Grocery Initiative is really about growing those locally grown initiatives,' Pritzker said. 'The idea here is that it can be a private enterprise or small business or a public enterprise coop or anything in between. The grocery initiative is about something that is locally grown helping it thrive or helping it come into existence without the state imposing an answer about it.' Former Superintendent Ed Hightower was asked to help revitalize the struggling community. He turned to lawmakers who found a bipartisan way forward through the Illinois Grocery Initiative. The municipally run grocery store, which is the first of its kind, aims to connect local farms with the store that will break ground this summer, located just across the street from the Venice Recreation Center and Venice City Hall. Paired with a medical clinic, local leaders say change and development are coming to the Route 3 corridor. 'We're looking for the next couple of months to actually break ground on that,' said Phillip White, Jr., Venice Mayor. 'A lot of the properties that had to be sold have been secured. We're ready for the demolition and the construction.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Pritzker awards over $10M in IL grocery initiative grants
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Governor JB Pritzker announced some awards to assist with Illinois grocery stores, however, the closest town to the Tri-State that will currently benefit from this initiative is Marion, Illinois. Governor JB Pritzker says he joined the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and 'local leaders' to announce awards through the Illinois Grocery Initiative 'New Stores in Food Deserts Program' and 'Equipment Upgrades Grant Program' to address food deserts and prevent grocery store closures in Illinois. Officials note grantees were selected through competitive Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) processes. 'When I signed the Illinois Grocery Initiative into law the vision we had in mind was reducing costs, fighting food insecurity, and boosting the local economy,' said Governor JB Pritzker. 'This $10 million investment will go directly toward construction and renovation of quality, affordable grocery options in neighborhoods across the state. From Champaign to Marion to Venice, we're fighting food insecurity while investing directly into the lifeblood of our economy, supporting farmers, small businesses, and working families.' Support grows for banning cell phones in classrooms across Illinois New stores in food deserts program Officials say the 'New Stores in Food Deserts Program' awards will support the establishment of new grocery stores in food deserts as defined by the Illinois Grocery Initiative Act. This funding will support construction and renovation costs for new stores, as well as many first-year operations costs, such as employee wages, utility costs and initial inventory of food. AL RAAWI LLC of Marion, Illinois, received $2,399,975 for a new construction project. 'At Economic Security Illinois, we believe that families and communities should have the resources they need to live fulfilling lives, from access to banks, to good schools, to affordable food in grocery stores,' said Erion Malasi, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Economic Security Illinois. 'When major life staples are lacking in the market, we want to harness the power of community and government to come together and provide a public option. We are proud to have funded the feasibility study for this effort, and proud to see funds for a new municipal-owned grocery store come to Venice. We're grateful to Governor Pritzker, Deputy Governor Andy Manar, and leaders in the General Assembly for advancing this critical effort.' Officials say after providing approximately $6.9 million through Round I of the Illinois Grocery Initiative New Stores Grants, DCEO opened Round II in October of 2024. Applicants were selected based on various requirements including: Must be located in a food desert Must earn less than 30% of revenue from alcohol and tobacco sales Must accept SNAP and WIC Must contribute to diversity of fresh foods available in community Kristi Noem slams Illinois governor, state's sanctuary policies; Pritzker claps back Equipment Upgrades Grant Program Governor JB Pritzker's office says the Equipment Upgrades Grant Program awards will support energy-efficient equipment upgrades for existing grocery stores, with priority given to those located in food insecure communities across the state. This program is designed to strengthen existing grocery stores and preserve access to fresh food in food insecure communities, in an effort to stop the formation of new food deserts. Willjo, Inc. of Marion, Illinois, received $132,234 for the complete replacement of walk-in freezer, HVAC system. State officials say after providing $1 million through Round I of the Illinois Grocery Initiative Equipment Upgrades Grant Program, DCEO opened Round II in January of 2025. This is a rolling grant opportunity which will remain open until December 15, 2025, or until funding is exhausted. Applicant qualifications include independent grocers or cooperatives with fewer than 500 employees and no more than four grocery locations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
How Racism In Agriculture Built America's Food Apartheid
(Part of the series Vanilla is Black) The Trump administration's proposed budget would slash billions from the USDA. Nutrition, rural development, and food programs face steep cuts, threatening efforts like the Illinois Grocery Initiative, which supports independent grocery stores and cooperatives in underserved areas. While many farmers will be hit hard, Black farmers may barely notice. They were never part of the safety net. Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains, Greene County, Ga. Artist Jack Delano. (Photo by ... More Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images) For generations, Black farmers have been left out of subsidies, loans, and access to land. The USDA didn't serve Black farmers; at best, it neglected them at worst, it pushed them out. Only 1.4% of U.S. farmers today are Black. In 1920, it was 14%. In Ohio, it's less than 1%. From 16 million acres owned by Black families, we're now down to scraps. (Source: USDA Census of Agriculture) 'We're Not Allowed to Farm Anymore' I FIRST met a Black farmer in the basement of the Ohio State Capitol, in 2012. He was there to lobby. We ran into each other near the giant mosaic map of Ohio on the ground floor of the statehouse. What he said stuck with me: 'Black folks aren't allowed to farm anymore.' That feels true in state like Ohio where less than 1% of farmers are Black. That is just bonkers! Later, when Planet Money traced the life of a T-shirt, from cotton field to factory to store, I noticed something. There wasn't a single Black voice in the story. Black folks weren't in a story that began in Mississippi about cotton, of all things! It's not like they were left out of the story. Historically, aside from picking it, Black folks haven't been allowed in the cotton business. The USDA, banks, and courts helped push Black farmers off their land. Some were denied loans. Others were burned out, cheated, or chased away. Anton Seals Jr., is doing something about that. Anton is objectively one of the leaders of the urban food and land movement. He's on the board of the Trust for Public Land. He leads Grow Greater Englewood, in Chicago. He's also been my friend since the third grade. His work has had an outsized influence on me and my reporting career. Anton says the recent USDA chaos isn't about food deserts. 'It's food apartheid,' he told me. 'Because deserts are natural. Apartheid is planned.' Trump's USDA Cuts Threaten Local Grocery Access Anton helped shape the $20 million Illinois Grocery Initiative. The program, launched by Governor J.B. Pritzker in 2023, supports independent grocery stores and cooperatives through grants, infrastructure, and technical assistance. It aims to bring fresh food access to underserved Black and brown neighborhoods across the state. President Trump's proposed USDA cuts would jeopardize this initiative and similar programs designed to bring fresh food to local communities. That includes funding for SNAP and school meals. Illinois pantries were left scrambling when the administration pulled reimbursements to farmers supplying fresh food to food banks. (Source: ABC7 Chicago) Anton doesn't hold back. 'We had over a million Black farmers in 1910. Now we have 20,000. That's not a decline. That's theft.' He's critical of how federal money to end food deserts has been distributed. 'Those subsidies still went to box stores. And once the money ran out, they left again. No infrastructure. No lasting impact.' He says the structure remains broken. 'We've never built a pipeline from Black farmers to Black communities. The food might show up, but it doesn't build our businesses or our power.' Anton says in many ways the problems of the inner cities are the problems of Black farmers, 'this isn't just about food. It's about control. It's about who gets to feed who. And who gets fed lies.' He added, "We are not disconnected from the food system, we've been deliberately cut off from it." Karen Washington sees it the same way. She grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses in New York. Her parents worked in food. She became a physical therapist. But her patients kept getting sicker. So she started asking her patients questions, and they remembered gardens, fruit stands, the watermelon man, and home-cooked meals. A vegetable garden planted by the nonprofit Detroit organization Urban Farming begins to take shape ... More on abandoned lots in an area of Detroit that was the epicenter of the 1967 riots that destroyed much of the city's downtown. (Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images) She saw the pattern: the food system isn't broken. It works exactly as it was designed, to exclude. Karen started gardens. Farmers markets. She co-founded the Black Farmer Fund. Like Anton, she's not focused on nostalgia. 'This isn't about fixing a broken food system. It's about shifting power.' Washington says she's come to realize that helping to repair a broken food system is human rights work, 'if you help the bottom rung of people, everybody prospers. What I'm trying to do is to help people understand their power.' During the Great Migration, Black families fled terror and lost land. They moved into cities. Into redlined neighborhoods. Into jobs with no path to ownership. 'We've never built a pipeline from Black farmers to Black communities. The food might show up, but it doesn't build our businesses or our power.' Anton Seals, Grow Greater Englewood Still, they built what they could. Churches sold chicken dinners to keep the lights on. Fish shacks paid for college. Rib joints got people through school. Women ran ghost kitchens out of their homes. These weren't just hustles. They were strategy. Ayana Contreras writes in her book "Energy Never Dies" how fish fry joints, BBQ shacks, and church kitchens were more than places for food. They were places where Black Southerners rebuilt their culture and created wealth, which they then used to fund civil rights and political movements. Robert Binion, center, a peach and watermelon farmer from Clanton, Ala., speaks at the microphone as ... More a small group of black farmers rally at the Agriculture Department in Washington to urge settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination, Monday, Feb. 15, 2010. John W. Boyd Jr., third from left, a farmer from Baskerville, Va., and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, says black farmers have been systematically denied loans and treated unfairly by the Department of Agriculture for years. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) I think a lot about the civil rights leader John Mack and an interview I did with him. It was a basic message. Land. Food. Housing. Access. If we want to fix the economy, that's where we start. Anton said it best: "You want a resilient Black economy? Start with who controls the land, who feeds the people, and who owns the stores. If we don't control any of those things, then what are we really building?" That's a question Black people should be asking themselves in this moment. This is part of my upcoming book, Blackenomics, about how racism hurts the economy and how ending racism benefits everyone financially. Click here to support independent journalism.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chicago says it hopes to open city-owned market instead of city-owned grocery store
A year and a half ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson first floated the idea of opening a city-owned grocery store. Now, city officials say they have scrapped their public grocery store plans in favor of opening a public market. A year-round public market, city officials said, would sell staple grocery items, such as milk and bread. The market would also contain retail spaces for local farmers and food retailers to sell their products, which the city said it would rent out at low cost. Still, details are scarce about when such a market would open, how it would be funded and operated and where it would be located. The announcement of the change in plans comes weeks after the Tribune reported the city did not apply for state funding for a public supermarket despite previously saying it would do so. 'This market will have almost like a multiplier effect in that we could support local entrepreneurs and food producers in our own neighborhoods that will essentially now have a place to sell their goods,' Deputy Mayor Kenya Merritt said in an interview. 'This model, I think, came out of a desire to be more impactful than just a public grocery store.' Johnson's original proposal for a municipally owned grocery store was a bold one: No major U.S. city had opened a publicly owned supermarket, although the concept had found mixed success in several smaller municipalities and has since attracted interest in other big American cities, including in New York. Proponents of the concept, including the mayor, said a city-owned store could help address the dearth of supermarkets in some neighborhoods on the city's South and West sides, where big grocery companies have shuttered store after store, leaving many residents with limited access to fresh groceries. As recently as late August, the city planned to apply for state funding to help pay for a public grocery store in Chicago, after a feasibility study created for the city by private consultants found that such a store was 'necessary, feasible and implementable.' The city has not released the study to the public despite previously committing to doing so. But in January, the Tribune reported city officials had not applied for state funding after filing a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed Chicago had not filed any applications for a grant under the $20 million Illinois Grocery Initiative. The city could have secured up to $2.4 million for the project if it had applied — nowhere near enough to fund a new supermarket but a place to start. In an interview last month, the city's chief operating officer, John Roberson, said the city 'really did not have anything to apply that money to in terms of a project, a shovel-ready project that was ready to go.' The idea for the public market, Merritt said, came out of conversations with the Food Equity Council, a group of food system professionals who advise the city on food access issues. In addition to the public market, the city plans to develop an 'incubator' program that will help provide training and apprenticeship opportunities for hopeful future grocery operators. The city said it also hopes to launch a program that will provide support in the form of funding and training to local food retailers. Erika Allen, a co-chair of the Food Equity Council, said members of the group are aware of the challenges of the grocery business, which often operates on thin profit margins dependent on highly perishable inventory. 'For a city to sponsor that or run it didn't make sense to most of us,' said Allen, who is CEO of the Urban Growers Collective, an urban farming nonprofit based in Chicago. But it did make sense, she said, for the city to invest in infrastructure to support food access — like a public market. 'Our goal here is to stabilize food access,' Allen said. 'We're really looking at food security and food access as a basic human need,' she added. Merritt said the city could not yet specify where a public market would be located, though she said the city was focused on the South and West sides. The project could involve one market or multiple spots across different neighborhoods, Merritt said. Merritt would not specify how much the city expects the market to cost or what specific funding sources the city, which is still projected to face a large budget deficit next year, would tap to bankroll it. Broadly, she said, the city expects to use a combination of city dollars, philanthropy and perhaps corporate partnerships to support the project financially. She said the city could not yet provide a specific timeline for when a market might open. Merritt said the city is not sure whether it would operate the public market or contract with a third-party operator to manage the day-to-day running of the market. In a presentation city staff shared with members of the Food Equity Council in November, they referenced public markets in three other cities — the North Market in Columbus, Ohio, Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia and the Milwaukee Public Market. Successful public markets are typically located in high-density, downtown areas of a city because they need lots of foot traffic to sustain themselves, said Andrew Lamas, a professor of urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania. That raises questions, Lamas said, about whether a public market in Chicago will address the issue the city said it wanted to tackle when it floated the idea of a public supermarket: food deserts on the city's South and West sides. The Reading Terminal Market, for instance, is located in downtown Philadelphia, near hotels, transportation arteries and a five-minute walk to City Hall. The publicly owned market is managed by a nonprofit that oversees its day-to-day operations, Lamas said. People who shop at the market are diverse, both in terms of race and class, Lamas said, even though many other public spaces in the city, such as public schools and transportation, are more segregated. 'That's valuable,' Lamas said. 'But it doesn't respond specifically to the food desert issue.' Merritt emphasized that Chicago plans to open a market in a location where it would address a gap in food access. The market or markets would be located in public transit-accessible areas where there is community support for the project, she said. 'We envision these markets to become destinations that drive economic vitality in the community where they are located,' she said. Lamas agreed that a public market is a more feasible model for the city to tackle than a supermarket. The benefit of a public market, he said, is that the risk inherent in a supermarket operation is spread across many different businesses. 'I think this is a better model,' for the city to attempt, he said. 'The problem is that it may not address the interests of low-income people.'
Chicago Tribune
11-02-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago says it hopes to open city-owned market instead of city-owned grocery store
A year and a half ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson first floated the idea of opening a city-owned grocery store. Now, city officials say they have scrapped their public grocery store plans in favor of opening a public market. A year-round public market, city officials said, would sell staple grocery items, such as milk and bread. The market would also contain retail spaces for local farmers and food retailers to sell their products, which the city said it would rent out at low cost. Still, details are scarce about when such a market would open, how it would be funded and operated and where it would be located. The announcement of the change in plans comes weeks after the Tribune reported the city did not apply for state funding for a public supermarket despite previously saying it would do so. 'This market will have almost like a multiplier effect in that we could support local entrepreneurs and food producers in our own neighborhoods that will essentially now have a place to sell their goods,' Deputy Mayor Kenya Merritt said in an interview. 'This model, I think, came out of a desire to be more impactful than just a public grocery store.' Johnson's original proposal for a municipally owned grocery store was a bold one: No major U.S. city had opened a publicly owned supermarket, although the concept had found mixed success in several smaller municipalities and has since attracted interest in other big American cities, including in New York. Proponents of the concept, including the mayor, said a city-owned store could help address the dearth of supermarkets in some neighborhoods on the city's South and West sides, where big grocery companies have shuttered store after store, leaving many residents with limited access to fresh groceries. As recently as late August, the city planned to apply for state funding to help pay for a public grocery store in Chicago, after a feasibility study created for the city by private consultants found that such a store was 'necessary, feasible and implementable.' The city has not released the study to the public despite previously committing to doing so. But in January, the Tribune reported city officials had not applied for state funding after filing a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed Chicago had not filed any applications for a grant under the $20 million Illinois Grocery Initiative. The city could have secured up to $2.4 million for the project if it had applied — nowhere near enough to fund a new supermarket but a place to start. In an interview last month, the city's chief operating officer, John Roberson, said the city 'really did not have anything to apply that money to in terms of a project, a shovel-ready project that was ready to go.' The idea for the public market, Merritt said, came out of conversations with the Food Equity Council, a group of food system professionals who advise the city on food access issues. In addition to the public market, the city plans to develop an 'incubator' program that will help provide training and apprenticeship opportunities for hopeful future grocery operators. The city said it also hopes to launch a program that will provide support in the form of funding and training to local food retailers. Erika Allen, a co-chair of the Food Equity Council, said members of the group are aware of the challenges of the grocery business, which often operates on thin profit margins dependent on highly perishable inventory. 'For a city to sponsor that or run it didn't make sense to most of us,' said Allen, who is CEO of the Urban Growers Collective, an urban farming nonprofit based in Chicago. But it did make sense, she said, for the city to invest in infrastructure to support food access — like a public market. 'Our goal here is to stabilize food access,' Allen said. 'We're really looking at food security and food access as a basic human need,' she added. Merritt said the city could not yet specify where a public market would be located, though she said the city was focused on the South and West sides. The project could involve one market or multiple spots across different neighborhoods, Merritt said. Merritt would not specify how much the city expects the market to cost or what specific funding sources the city, which is still projected to face a large budget deficit next year, would tap to bankroll it. Broadly, she said, the city expects to use a combination of city dollars, philanthropy and perhaps corporate partnerships to support the project financially. She said the city could not yet provide a specific timeline for when a market might open. Merritt said the city is not sure whether it would operate the public market or contract with a third-party operator to manage the day-to-day running of the market. In a presentation city staff shared with members of the Food Equity Council in November, they referenced public markets in three other cities — the North Market in Columbus, Ohio, Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia and the Milwaukee Public Market. Successful public markets are typically located in high-density, downtown areas of a city because they need lots of foot traffic to sustain themselves, said Andrew Lamas, a professor of urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania. That raises questions, Lamas said, about whether a public market in Chicago will address the issue the city said it wanted to tackle when it floated the idea of a public supermarket: food deserts on the city's South and West sides. The Reading Terminal Market, for instance, is located in downtown Philadelphia, near hotels, transportation arteries and a five-minute walk to City Hall. The publicly owned market is managed by a nonprofit that oversees its day-to-day operations, Lamas said. People who shop at the market are diverse, both in terms of race and class, Lamas said, even though many other public spaces in the city, such as public schools and transportation, are more segregated. 'That's valuable,' Lamas said. 'But it doesn't respond specifically to the food desert issue.' Merritt emphasized that Chicago plans to open a market in a location where it would address a gap in food access. The market or markets would be located in public transit-accessible areas where there is community support for the project, she said. 'We envision these markets to become destinations that drive economic vitality in the community where they are located,' she said. Lamas agreed that a public market is a more feasible model for the city to tackle than a supermarket. The benefit of a public market, he said, is that the risk inherent in a supermarket operation is spread across many different businesses. 'I think this is a better model,' for the city to attempt, he said. 'The problem is that it may not address the interests of low-income people.'
