Huntley Indoor Farmer's Market celebrates 50-year anniversary

The community-focused grocery store is hosting a weekend-long celebration with live music, food, and more.

Published on Feb. 12, 2026

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Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, a local natural foods grocery store in Huntley, Illinois, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend. The employee-owned co-op, which was born out of the 1970s grassroots natural food movement, is hosting a party with live music, food, games, giveaways, and over 25 vendor booths.

Why it matters

In a neighborhood marked by high retail turnover and the rise of big-box chains, Rainbow Grocery has remained a community-focused, mission-driven business that has built up a loyal clientele over the past five decades. The store's commitment to organic, nutritious food and its unique worker-owned cooperative model have allowed it to thrive where many other independent grocers have struggled.

The details

Rainbow Grocery has stayed in business and built up a local following through pandemic-era buying shifts and customer displacement by embracing values-based and hard-to-find items in product categories such as homeopathic bath and beauty products, herbal medicines, organic produce, specialty vegan, and goods from environmentally conscious brands.

  • Rainbow Grocery opened in the summer of 1975.
  • Rainbow is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend (August 17, 2025).

The players

Rainbow Grocery Cooperative

A local natural foods grocery store, organized as an employee-owned co-op and born out of a 1970s grassroots natural food movement calling for access to nutritious and organic food.

Gordon Edgar

A 31-year employee who oversees Rainbow's cheese counter.

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What they’re saying

“Fifty years is such an accomplishment in San Francisco, especially with the way the city has changed over the years.”

— Gordon Edgar, grocery employee (Instagram)

The takeaway

In an era of private equity-owned supermarkets, San Francisco's largest independent natural food store remains worker-owned and committed to organic food—proving mission-driven retail can survive and community values can endure.