Obama Center seeks South, West Side food vendors

Vendors would operate café, restaurant, handle catering

By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter

The Obama Foundation is looking to recruit restaurant owners and caterers from the South and West Sides to operate a restaurant and grab-and-go café inside the future Obama Presidential Center, the presidential library and museum being built in the South Side’s Jackson Park

Obama Foundation officials said their nonprofit wanted to make sure that Chicago’s culinary diversity will be represented and provide opportunities “for smaller, locally owned businesses.” They are looking for vendors with experience – according to the bid documents, they are looking for vendors that ear ned no less than $5 million in revenue over the past five years and have experience handling a large volume of customers. The foundation went out to bid on Dec. 1, 2022, with responses due on Feb. 17. Winning bidders are expected to be chosen in June

Joshua Harris, the foundation’s community development director, said they wanted to involve businesses from the South and West sides in every aspect of the center

To help get the word out, the foundation worked with the Chicago Urban League and local elected officials Harris said it reached out to the neighborhood chambers of commerce, specifically mentioning the Austin Chamber of Commerce However, Austin chamber director Khalilah Johnson said that, to the best of her knowledge, the foundation never reached out to her organization.

Malcolm Crawford, executive director of the Austin African American Business Networking Association, said that, while the foundation reached out to them in 2021 about