Special Reports

Green City Market Founder Dies At 75

Abby Mandel Was Also Celebrated Chef, Food Columnist

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A remarkable Chicago woman is being remembered tonight for supporting local farmers and bringing fresh food to many of our tables. Food writer and Chef Abby Mandel died yesterday.

She was the founder of Chicago's nationally known Green City Market. The market features 45 sustainable or certified organic farmers, along with cooking demonstrations and educational programs.

You'll find the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Lincoln Park. When you see it, you realize that Abby Mandel has left quite a legacy.

A decade ago, there were just a handful of farmers and vendors – and now there are more than 40.

Farmers like Beth Eccles have special memories of Abby Mandel.

"Abby put us here. She brought us here when our farm was small and struggling," said Eccles, Green Acres Farm.

Abby's vision was to give Chicagoans quality food, grown by local farmers who care about the environment.

The market has been profitable for farmers. Nick Nichols was one of the originals.

"She's a great woman… unbelievable dreams and amazingly it all paid off and right now it's a real viable market that she managed to dream about 11 years ago," said Nichols, Nichols Farm & Orchard said.

And shoppers love it too.

"I feel like I haven't seen a decent tomato in the grocery store in five years, so this is the only place I feel like I can get a decent tomato," said shopper Amanda Goldsmith.

Abby died Wednesday. She had been battling cancer for the last year or so. But her legacy is alive and well.

"And this market… I cannot even begin to tell you," Eccles said. "Eight years ago here, we were on a path. There might have been a couple hundred people in a day. Now there's a few thousand."

Among the thousands, a busload of spunky seniors from the Collins Senior Apartments.

"Oh I just love the fresh vegetables and the sunflowers," one senior said.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" another senior said.

This is Abby's pride and joy," said Sarah Stegner, Exec. Board, Green City Market. "And she has put her heart into it and it shows. It's blossomed and grown and really become a community."

Mandel was also known as an accomplished chef, cookbook author and food columnist.

She wrote a "Weekend Cook" column for more than two decades in the Chicago Tribune's Home& Garden section, and before that a column for the Sun-Times called "Turned on Kitchen."

The Sun-Times called Ms. Meyer "the Martha Stewart of the Midwest."

Services for Abby Mandel will be tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe.

The Green City Market is held outdoors in Lincoln Park through October - then moves to a heated tent for the colder months.

For more information, visit http://www.chicagogreencitymarket.org/

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