Holiday - Celebrate - Let's Get To Eight!

Holiday - Celebrate - Let's Get to Eight!

Treat Yourself This Holiday: OWN It!

Join us Sunday afternoon, December 9th, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm for the most wonderful time of the year at Duke's Alehouse & Kitchen. Enjoy delicious appetizers, drinks (cash bar), raffle prizes, silent auction and live music with local musician Julie Gibson, while catching up with your Food Shed friends! Holiday Party Tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance, on our website Event page.

If you've been thinking about becoming an owner of a grocery store that will offer more locally-sourced, nutritional food products, now's the time! You'll be welcoming a new year soon, and be that much closer to helping get YOUR grocery store open for business!

All new owners will receive a FREE Food Shed Co-op T-shirt, yard sign, and bumper sticker, so you can start showing everyone your co-op pride!

Chance to Win $200!

We’re offering any new owner who signs up from TODAY up until party time on Sunday, December 9th at 4pm to have their name entered into a raffle to win $200! That’s the value of a Founding Owner membership!

Invite Friends to Become Owners!

Bring 'em to the party! In fact, bring everyone you know who's ready to sign up and become Food Shed Co-op Owners! Now is a great time to celebrate and wrap up an amazing year of getting closer to opening our store. But we need to reach our goals to make that happen. Our next goal: 800 owners before the end of the year!

Give the Gift of Ownership!

It's the perfect time of year to purchase Food Shed Co-op ownerships as a gift for a friend or loved one. If you bring a non-owner to sign up, you'll get an extra raffle ticket!

Silent Auction + Raffle Prizes!

Don't miss out on your chance to win fun, delicious, and relaxing raffle prizes from local merchants, including multiple high-value gift baskets, Terra Vitae Farms gift pack, Golf for 4 with Golf Cart at Chalet Hills Golf Club in Cary, Jewelry from Triskele Moon, Fused Glass Art Classes from Glassworks by Kim, Massage Therapy Gift Certificate from Tarja Anchor, Riverbottom Ice Cream gift cards, and more.

Canned Food Drive!

We'll also be collecting quality canned goods to be donated to the Crystal Lake Food Pantry and the Woodstock Food Pantry. Please contribute if you can and help those in our community who are food insecure this season.

NOTE: Holiday Party Tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance on our website Event page. Increase your chance of winning prizes by purchasing additional raffle tickets at the party! A cash bar will be available at an additional cost.

Exciting Next Steps!

Since making our proposal to McHenry County College's Board of Trustees in August, we continue to receive positive feedback from their board, the MCC community, Food Shed owners, and our surrounding local community in pursuing this path to plant our store.

In fact, we have continued our conversations with the MCC leadership team during the past month and will keep you updated with any new developments in the near future.

We're optimistic about this direction for our location, which brings us to our next stage of success: We need 800 owners to secure our site. Though we've grown to 631 proud owners, we’ll need more Food Shed Co-op owners and money to successfully come into this next phase and announce our home base for our cooperative grocery store.

WE CAN DO IT, just like hundreds of other co-ops across the nation who have successfully gone before us! Here's an infographic to help visualize our exciting next steps:

Food Shed's Stages of Success Roadmap

(Disclaimer: Infographic is tentative and may be subject to change)

Future Events

Sustainable documentary screening | March - April 2019

Join us for appetizers and a FREE viewing of the insightful and inspiring film documentary, Sustainable, followed by a question/answer session about the role of a food co-op like the Food Shed, in the sustainable, local food movement.

We'll be screening the film at several locations in McHenry County in Spring 2019, including the Cary Area Public Library, the Algonquin Area Public Library and McHenry County College. Dates and times TBA.

Volunteer Opportunities

Woodstock Winter Farmers Market | Nov. 17th, Dec. 1st, Jan. 19th, Feb. 16th, Mar. 16th | McHenry County Fairgrounds, Bldg. D, Woodstock

Come on out to the award-winning Woodstock Farmers Market at the McHenry County Fairgrounds inside Building "D," where you'll enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of more than 30 vendors offering quality winter produce and local artisanal foods and gifts, while listening to live music!

The Food Shed Co-op will have an outreach table at the market this year, offering information and answering questions about our local food cooperative. Help us to reach our goal of 800 owners before the end of the year, so we can get closer to opening our store!

We're looking for a few volunteers to represent the Food Shed at this festive winter market. If you can help out, please sign up (RSVP) on our website Event page.