The Dill Pickle Food Co-op in Logan Square will soon call a new location home, which the company said will allow it to expand its reach and mission of creating a vibrant and sustainable community. 

The co-op will now be able to provide customers with a full service grocery, deli, beer and wine  shop and a community room, according to the co-op’s website.The store is open to the public seven days a week.

“The community room will be available for workshops, cooking classes and events,” said Kevin Monahan, the president of the board of  directors at the co-op. 

Currently located at 3039 W. Fullerton Ave., the co-op is set  to move in early spring to its new location at 2746 N. Milwaukee Ave. However, the project is still in its design phase, he said.

The food co-op first opened in December 2009 with around 400 members. The Dill Pickle’s membership has almost quadrupled since, according to Monahan.

“This is a community—- building effort and we need input from everyone,” Monahan said.

Food cooperatives are member-based grocery stores run by an elected board of directors and voting members  who invest their time and money to control the co-op’s direction. 

The Dill Pickle Food Co-op has about 100 active volunteering members and has searched for a new location throughout the last three years, according to Monahan. 

“It’s great to have an organization where people can belong,” said Joan Hersh,  a member of the co-op. “We all own the Dill Pickle, [and] that gives us a stake in what happens to it. 

Hersh said she handles an array of tasks when volunteering for the co-op. She said during her two-hour volunteering shifts, she checks inventory, weighs  produce and cleans. 

The expansion of the Dill Pickle Co-op will benefit the Logan Square neighborhood, said Paul Levin, executive director of the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. 

“Now [that] they are expanding, it is going to have an opportunity to make a significant [economic] impact on the neighborhood,” Levin said. 

Sharon Hoyer, the general manager of the co-op since December 2012, said the co-op is a great resource for locally-sourced food and  fair-traded food.

“I was excited about the idea of supporting sustainable food and [a] sustainable economy,” Hoyer said. “We have a nice strong community considering how small the store is, and I’m really excited to be in a bigger store where we can make a bigger more,  positive impact.”