In 1995, Abbey Ripstra was introduced by a mutual friend to Dan Rockaway, who was organizing a food buying Co-op that would be based in the Edgewater neighborhood. Abbey became a founding member of the new Chicago Communitarian Co-op (CCC), which purchased natural foods, supplements, and health/beauty aids from Co-operatively owned distributor Blooming Prairie.

Blooming Prairie allowed buying clubs to make bulk purchases at a low price of wholesale plus 10%. Bulk items were emphasized, and the Co-op had an eventual goal of rotating all members through every job. Abbey and roommate Rachel Creager were excited about being in a food Co-op, but found the long commute from Wicker Park to Edgewater was a hefty obstacle to deal with for groceries. It wasn't long before they decided to try to recruit enough members from their own neighborhood to fulfill the minimum order as a separate entity. For a few months, CCC had a Wicker Park chapter, which operated partially independently of its parent group. The infant Co-op took up residence in a shared building in Wicker Park with a non-profit activist group called A-Zone.

Eventually, the Wicker Park Food Co-op (WPFC) formally spun-off off on its own to form a nonprofit organization. A primary goal was to provide access to natural and organic groceries in a neighborhood that had few options in this market. From the start, WPFC members wanted their group to be somewhat different from their former umbrella Co-op, the CCC. They developed a style of organization that was, and remains, loosely structured. One policy difference they tried was to allow members an option to maintain membership in times when they are not able to participate. This desire led to a non-working fee, in which members who have not done any Co-op work in a cycle may still place an order so long as they pay an additional fee. This enabled the Co-op to fulfill Blooming Prairie's minimum order, while adding funds to the young Co-op's tight budget.

Another change WPFC made was dropping the requirement for all members to attend meetings. In order to keep everyone informed of Co-op business, a newsletter was established, edited by Connie Ripstra. Meeting agendas were largely set by those present, and facilitated by whoever volunteered to do so. Notes from the meeting were delivered to Connie, who edited them for the newsletter. The newsletter, called "The Market Basket", was an important tool of communication for a more loosely-organized Co-op.

Over the years, membership hovered around 30 households, with orders ranging from a dozen to about 20 each month. To accommodate all of these groceries, the Co-op acquired a refrigerator. An agreement to share it with A-Zone members was worked out so that they could used it for their "Food Not Bombs" project. Later the in the summer of 2000, A-Zone lost their lease and was without a location for a few months. WPFC began to investigate other space options. They were introduced to the Near Northwest Arts Coalition (NNWAC), who were managing an artist-led community center in rapidly gentrifying Bucktown. Their building, called Acme Art Works, was located at 1741 N. Western and came with a handy loading dock. Soon the Co-op chose to buyout A-Zone's share of their shared refrigerator and move to Acme Art Works.

As the overall organic and natural foods market became increasingly lucrative by the turn of the century, changes in competition at the distribution level soon came to follow. Due in part to laws that favor big distributors and their supermarket beast counterparts like Wal-Mart, most of the smaller distributors of organic and natural goods began merging or being bought out -- if they did not fold under altogether. Responding to these changes, in 2002, Blooming Prairie made a proposition to sell out to United Natural Foods, Inc., a for-profit national distributor. As a shareholding member of Blooming Prairie, WPFC chose to vote to continue against this proposal, but was strongly out-voted. Blooming Prairie's name was effectively changed to United Natural Foods, Inc.

Over the Fall of 2005, a shrinking WPFC and a similarly shrinking Soylent Green (another local UNFI-tied buying club) merged into a larger, more stable Co-op under the WPFC name. This timely merger was extremely beneficial to all members of both Co-ops. It allowed the WPFC to retain it's current discount total (which was higher than Soylent Green's), it brought a proven, new bulk-buying procedure to the entire group, and it also helped foster new friendships and working relationships between neighbors who share a common goal for less expensive natural groceries.

In November of 2007, the WPFC moved to a new location due to the closing of Acme Art Works. The Co-op found a new home in the first floor of an old printing shop located at 3039 W. Fullerton. The new owners of the building were specifically interested in leasing their raw business space to a local food Co-op. Dill Pickle Food Co-op showed interest in the space as well, and soon both groups were making plans to share the space in a collaborative effort to build their operations out.

The move to Logan Square prompted a re-evaluation of the name Wicker Park Food Co-op and WPFC's marketing vision. And so, in January 2008, the WPFC formally changed its name to Logan Square Food Buying Club (LSFBC). LSFBC was felt by many members to be better aligned with the new location and also more accurately displayed the Co-op as a buying club rather than a storefront (which is what Dill Pickle Food Co-op is working to build).

2007 brought a lot of change-related challenges, and 2008 would come to offer 12 more months of the same. Due to the pending construction zone of 3039 W. Fullerton for the Dill Pickle Food Co-op storefront, the LSFBC would yet again have to search for a new home -- a 2nd move in as many years. By mid-year, fortunately the LSFBC had reached a decision to move to St. Paul's Community Center. St. Paul's had recently changed from an operating church to a community center run by NNWAC. The Co-op had enjoyed working with NNWAC for 7 years in their former space, Acme Art Works, and was happy to be returning to a familiar partnership.

With the move out of the community of Logan Square, the Co-op realized it would be in their best interest to change their name once more -- also a 2nd time in as many years. After months of brainstorming and pairing-down, the Co-op members took it to a vote and chose Chicago Food Co-op as their new name. Other accomplishments of 2008 for the Co-op include steady growth in membership -- enabling the Co-op to receive a larger discount from UNFI and to be able to place orders with other suppliers on a regular basis. Also, the Breakdown/Receiving and Treasury/Bookkeeping processes matured substantially.