South Suburban Food Co-op, Matteson

Tucked away in an industrial park just off Main Street in Matteson, the South Suburban Food Co-op has been offering healthy alternatives for over 34 years. Run by a board of directors and operated mostly by volunteers, the Food Co-op is owned by its several hundred members and exists to provide maximum food value and quality to those members. The Food Co-op offered "green" alternatives in food and household cleaning supplies, long before those products appeared in local chain stores....

Fresh vegetables arrive at the co-op on Thursday mornings from the markets in Chicago, picked up early and selected by volunteers. The store is also an outlet for local organic farmers who provide produce, and uses the Midwest Organic Farmers’ Co-op, an arrangement which is new this year.

Walter Demler started the co-op in 1974 with 30 orders for produce and distributed them out of a dry cleaning store in Norwood Square Shopping Center. It has moved twice over the years, and has evolved into a store carrying much more than fresh produce.

Members can purchase fish, organic beef, chicken, eggs, buffalo meat, canned goods, specialty breads, cereals, whole grain, rice and vegetable pastas, and baking supplies....