Chicago Supermarket Holds Fair

By COLlive reporter

Chicago supermarket chain Jewel-Osco, which features one of the largest Kosher offerings in the Midwest, held their second annual “Taste of Kosher Food Fair” this past Sunday.

The event was a tremendous success with over 2,000 people attending to sample Kosher foods displayed by over 45 different Kosher companies from around the U.S. and Israel.

The event also included a live fruit and vegetable carving demo with Chef Rafael Perez from the St. Augustine College, Culinary Arts plus a special session with the “Gluten Free Mom Certified”, Tiffany Hinton, discussing children’s food allergies.

The main attraction was a feature performance by Uncle Moishy which included a photo op session with him plus Uncle Moishy mingled with the hundreds of customers sampling foods and shopping in the store.

Following Uncle Moishy’s final performance, a Customer Appreciation Kosher BBQ was held where over 2,000 attendees enjoyed everything from freshly grilled Shor Habor hot dogs to delicious cotton candy and much more.

Many Chabad Shluchim from all throughout Illinois and Wisconsin drove in to attend this event that truly exemplified “Mivtza Kashrus” in every term of the words.

Yakov Yarmove, a Lubavitcher who is the Jewel-Osco Corporate Category Manager for Specialty and Ethnic Foods, organized this event to celebrate Jewel’s 11th anniversary of opening this World-class Kosher store-within-a-store.

“It was such a Kiddush Hashem to see the throngs of people that attended this event, over double the attendance from last year, which really reflects how Kosher foods when offered to the public in a traditional supermarket setting, can really make it so much more accessible and easier for people to buy and keep Kosher,” he told COLlive.com.

In addition to this flagship store which boasts a full Kosher deli, bakery, butcher shop, fish dept, sushi, fresh salad bar, Cholov Yisroel coffee shop and even a Kosher Chinese restaurant, all staffed by a team of OU Mashgichim; Jewel-Osco also carries a Kosher offering in many of the balance of its 184 stores, especially in areas near Shluchim that cannot easily get to Chicago often.

Customers were overhead in the aisles commenting how this was just like a “mini-Kosherfest” referring to the annual Kosher trade show in New Jersey, “however this one had Uncle Moishy too!”