About 200 people turned up Wednesday morning in Woodstock, Ill. for the grand opening of the Food Shed Co-op, a community-owned grocery store located about 60 miles northwest of Chicago.
The co-op was first incorporated in 2014 as a business organization under the Illinois Co-operative Act. The store is a full-service grocery store voluntarily owned and controlled by owners who have purchased equity shares.
On Wednesday, Food Shed Co-op Vice President Scott Brix welcomed shoppers and gave credit to the store’s Community Outreach Director Sue Jensen who had previously called the Food Shed Co-op “a beacon of community.”
The store’s general manager, Peter Waldmann, was also on hand. Waldmann started in grocery in the 1980’s, working for one of the first health food retail chains in the nation, Mrs. Gooch’s. Since that time, he has worked for several well-known Natural Foods retailers including: Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats Markets, Green’s Natural Foods, and most recently PCC Community Markets.
The Food Shed Co-op also has its own song, “Help Us Get There,” written and performed by local musician Cassandra Vohs-Demann, who was present and leading the store’s supporters in song.
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