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Roots & Vine Food Hub's Grand Opening in Suburban Park Forest
- Bob Benenson
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Farmers markets are the most visible outlets for farmers to sell their delicious, healthy products. But aggregators such food hubs, e-commerce sites and farm stops provide much-needed supplements or alternatives for producers to reach consumers.
You can see how one of these platforms operates — and have some fun, too — by attending the ribbon-cutting event at Roots & Vine Food Hub. The event will take place this Saturday (September 5) at 344 Victory Drive in Park Forest, a south suburb of Chicago, from 11 a.m to 1:30 p.m.
According to Roots & Vine, they are sourcing from 120 family farms.
Local Food Forum previewed the food hub in a March 25 article by contributor Bob Heuer, titled "Illinois Municipality At 'Forefront' of Local Food and Sustainability." The article highlighted Kate Baker, a member of the Park Forest government's Environment Commission, who spearheaded the project.
“Our purpose is to promote food access and culinary and nutritional education,” Baker explains. “You can tell someone they need to eat healthy food, veggies, fruits and good protein. But if people don’t know how to cook from scratch and the food they’re cooking isn’t delicious to begin with, then the reliance falls on the ultra-processed, salt-, fat- and sugar-laden ‘foods’ that have taken over our food system...”
Baker noted that these conversations revealed that “people have started opting for choice over curated farm boxes; they simply want or need to choose what they eat. So we pivoted from the farm box idea into an ordering platform complete with bundle boxes, subscriptions and itemized ordering, with products changing as the seasons progress depending on what is available from the farmers every week.”
The project advanced in fall 2025 when the hub secured a $60,000 grant from Chicago Food Policy Action Council, a leading non-profit that promotes local farming, community food sovereignty and improved good food access. The grant has funded development, hiring a manager and initial operating costs.
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