ENGLEWOOD — Plans to transform city-owned vacant land into a parking lot and green space for a new fresh market won approval from City Council Wednesday.
The Inner-City Muslim Action Network, also called IMAN, will use the lot at 1201-1205 W. 63rd St. for parking and, eventually, a space for pop-up vendors at their new community fresh market, leaders said. The non-profit paid the city $50,000 for the lot.
“We have already started on the design,” the group’s Director of Construction Benjamin Oluwajimi Gordon said in June. “God willing, we’ll break ground in this lot later this year.”
In March of last year, IMAN announced plans to expand their Fresh Market stand into a one-stop-shop for fresh goods in Englewood. The market was one of many projects in the organization’s Go Green on Racine neighborhood initiative — a plan to reinvest in Englewood and West Englewood.
The two-story, bright green market will sell fresh produce, deli meats, and products from neighborhood vendors downstairs. Upstairs, classrooms will be available for anything from food literacy classes to cooking demos.
“Part of what we’re doing with Go Green on Racine is breaking out of boundaries between neighborhoods because we are all part of a thriving ecosystem,” Rami Nashashibi, the executive director at IMAN, said at the cookout. “All of our communities deserve to thrive like any other community in this city and this world. That’s not going to happen until we come together and realize we are one people.”
“God willing, we’ll be celebrating lots of other victories in this neighborhood, but we got to know that can only happen with our combined efforts,” Nashashibi said. “Are you down?”
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