Green City Market

The mission of Green City Market is to improve the availability of a diverse range of high quality foods through connecting local producers and farmers to chefs, food organizations, and the greater Chicagoland community.  Green City Market achieves this mission by supporting small family farms and through providing education to adults and children about local, fresh, sustainably raised produce and products. Green City Market aims to create a sustainable food system in Chicago through our markets, outreach, and educational programming. We are located outdoors in Lincoln Park May-October and indoors in the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum November-April. 

Green City Market serves a diverse population that travel from all across the City of Chicago and suburbs. We host free field trips of The Edible Gardens and tours of the market that are attended by school children as well as adult groups from over 25 zip codes.

Our programming values access to local, healthy, sustainably raised food for all.  We believe that through our educational programs, the importance of such food is better understood.  Our educational programs are multipronged to address the following areas of importance:

• expanding access through markets, low-fees and outreach
• investing in food education through chef demos, club sprouts and the edible gardens
• supporting farmer education and growth through resources and scholarships
• serving the larger Chicago community through our LINK matching program

We achieve this through a variety of educational programs:

1. Club Sprouts encourages young people to try new, locally grown sustainable foods. At every market, children are given the opportunity to taste an in-season market item. Those who sample one of the tastes receive a stamp on their Club Sprouts membership card. Kids earn points for each new thing they try, we track it and then after a certain number of tastes they graduate with a certificate of “Good Taste”. Club Sprouts also offers fun, seasonal activitites and lessons, from scavenger hunts, to hands-on recipes, so children can learn the benefits of eating fresh, healthy ingredients and supporting local farms.  

2. Chef Demonstrations consist of local chefs showcasing recipes using seasonal and sustainable ingredients from GCM vendors which provide inspiration and guidance for how to cook with market ingredients in the home.  

3. Tours and Field Trips happen each market day and directly connect market goers and educational groups with why it is so important to eat local and support sustainably grown products. For example, groups can see first hand that eggs come in more colors than just white and truly understand the seaonal bounty of the Midwest.

4. The Edible Gardens program provides hands-on gardening education and activities to children, adults, and school groups. The 5,000 square foot teaching garden welcomes all who are interested to help them understand where their food comes from. Individiduals have the ability to tour the garden and get their hands dirty preparing soil, planting, thinning, weeding, and of course harvesting and tasting. This year we are very excited that we will be able to offer teachers the opportunity to continue the learning in their classrooms through free teacher boxes. Teachers can borrow the boxes for a week and create additional experiments with students right in the classroom. The Learning Boxes will help bridge the gap between the education that takes place in The Edible Gardens and Club Sprouts.  

5. LINK/Double Value program enhances access to fresh, healthy, locally grown food to all members of our community by doubling the value of LINK benefits dollar-for-dollar (up to $15 per card, per market day) to spend at the market. By making benefit dollars go farther, Green City Market's double value program encourages LINK beneficiaries to frequent the market and support a local food system.

6. Our Compost and Recycling program has helped to divert tens of thousands of pounds of food waste from Chicago area landfills since the program's inception in 2012. The green “Compost Center” tent, located in the center of the outdoor market, is Green City Market’s centralized waste disposal area. The tent is staffed to help market-goers sort their waste, and to ensure the compost and recycling streams are uncontaminated. 

7. Farmer Scholarship program is able to offer educational scholarships to GCM farmers/vendors. The eligible educational opportunities have been expanded to include all regional conferences and workshops and any educational programs offered by local extension offices. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide assistance to those who wish to increase their understanding of sustainable growing practices or obtain 3rd party certification for their farms.