About Shared Harvest: An Elgin Food Co-op

Vision

The Shared Harvest vision is to open a grocery store cooperative that provides fresh, healthful, food that is primarily organic and locally produced.

Mission Statement

Shared Harvest will be a cooperatively owned grocery in the heart of Elgin that links consumers to affordable, healthy, locally-produced food, fosters sustainable agriculture, and contributes to the economic and cultural vibrancy of the Elgin community.

Cooperatively owned means the Shared Harvest co-op grocery store will be voluntarily owned and controlled by the people who primarily use it: our owners, who purchase equity shares in the co-op. It will be operated for the benefit of our owners, to meet their mutual needs and values.

By opening a community owned grocery store, Shared Harvest will meet our community’s needs for healthy food, support our local economy, and provide a sustainable community based-alternative to corporate supermarkets. Shared Harvest is a for profit business that was incorporated with the State of Illinois as of December 2012. Rather than rewarding outside investors with its profits, a co-op returns surplus revenue to its members in proportion to how much they use the co-op. This democratic approach to business results in a powerful economic force that benefits the co-op, its members and the communities it serves.