Join Community Dining along with Kimberly Jung and Emily Miller, the co-founders of Rumi Spice, for an evening of delicious appetizers and desserts incorporating Rumi Spice’s saffron prepared by Chef Aram Reed at a private undisclosed location in Chicago’s Lakeview area.

Rumi Spice

Rumi Spice is the premier Afghan public-benefit corporation, cultivating peace through sustainable economic development.

We’re a team of military veterans sourcing the world’s highest quality saffron direct from Afghan farmers, who are also our partners.

We understand first hand the challenges and opportunities facing the country, and the need to strengthen Afghanistan’s greatest resource… its people.  By connecting Afghan farmers directly to the international market, we seek to catalyze market driven economic development, one farmer at a time.

At Rumi Spice we strive to provide high-quality, sustainably farmed saffron to US consumers by sourcing directly from rural Afghan farmers in an economic partnership. We reinvest our profits to build the agricultural and manufacturing infrastructure necessary to lay a foundation for peace and prosperity.  

In previous years, neglect of the rural Afghan majority contributed to the rise of the Taliban, who capitalized on historic grievances. Without investment in agriculture, Afghan farmers have little prospects with shrinking land allotments – making them susceptible to the Taliban. 

Rumi Spice strives to change this dynamic. We provide Afghan farmers with a direct market to produce and sell saffron globally.

 In the News

A Start-Up Turns to Saffron to Help Afghanistan Regrow

Read full article

The Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink

Read full article

Chef Aram Reed

Chef Aram Reed speicalizes in private dining, cooking instruction, and catering with an emphasis on fresh, quality ingredients and stunning presentations thoughtfully customized for every event.  His passion for good food and good company and his zest for life are reflected both in his work as a chef and cooking instructor.  Chef Aram is known, not only for creating tantalizing and satifsying menus, but an overall experience that is truly memorable.

A graduate of Western Illinois University with a Bachelors degree in Public Communications and Human Relations, Chef Aram spent several years in the financial industry successfully.  In 2008, he left the business world to pursue his passion for cooking and graduated top of his class at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu of Chicago. Chef Aram then furthered his studies by completing his Culinary Arts degree through a series of apprenticeships in Sorrento, Italy where he fell in love with the Italian culture, way of life and the regional cuisines.Upon returning to Chicago, Chef Aram Reed established his personal dining and catering business to share his passion and experiences with others.  When he’s not whipping up a fabulous meal for his clients, he can be found exploring Chicago’s great ethnic neighborhoods discovering new inspirations to share with you.  Aram can also be seen volunteering his time and cooking skills at various homeless shelters throughout the city.

List of Purveyors

Smith Devereux (formerly J.W. Thomas Wines) utilizes over 60 years of family winemaking experience to produce sustainably farmed, limited production wines.  With a strong belief in every bottle of wine telling a story, Smith Devereux farms only the highest quality grapes to create their award winning portfolio of wines.  Their first wine, Verse & Chorus was selected by Whole Foods as a Top 10 Holiday Pick and Wine Club Selection, and won Best in Class and a Gold Medal at the West Coast Wine Competition.  On the heels of this success, Smith Devereux launched critically acclaimed brands: Weather (2x Gold Medal Winner), Hanaiali’i (2x Double Gold, Best in Class, West Coast Wine Competition and 90pts Wine Spectator) and Dennen (91pts Wine Spectator) as well as the flagship Smith Devereux line of wines.

Tiesta Tea

IT ALL STARTED WHEN CHILDHOOD FRIENDS DISCOVERED THEIR LOVE FOR LOOSE TEA, WHILE STUDYING IN PRAGUE

Dan and Patrick stopped in a Czech tea house their first day in Prague …. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be their last.

AFTER COMING HOME, DAN AND PATRICK QUICKLY LEARNED HOW HARD IT WAS TO FIND QUALITY LOOSE TEA… WITHOUT GOING BROKE

The few tea shops that carried quality, exotic blends, seemed to charge an arm and leg just to smell their tea. This led to the aha moment,“Why don’t we just make this loose tea lifestyle accessible for everyone!?”

Gotham Greens

Gotham Greens is a global pioneer in the field of urban agriculture and a leading regional producer of hyper-local, premium-quality vegetables and herbs.  Gotham Greens’ pesticide-free produce is grown using ecologically sustainable methods in technologically-sophisticated, 100% clean energy powered, climate-controlled urban greenhouses.  Gotham Greens provides its diverse retail, restaurant, and institutional customers with a local, reliable, year-round supply of produce grown under the highest standards of food safety and environmental sustainability.  The company has built and operates over 170,000 square feet of greenhouse across 4 facilities in New York and Chicago.  Gotham Greens was a recipient of the 2015 Martha Stewart “American Made” award and was founded in 2009 in Brooklyn, New York.  www.gothamgreens.com

 Olivia’s Market

Fueled with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love of delicious food, we opened Olivia’s Market in August 2004. Since then, the store has grown its staff, product offerings, and customer base, but our mission has always remained the same:  Provide excellent customer service and offer the finest quality products at the ease of neighborhood shopping.  Thank you to all of our customers past, present, and future who support Olivia’s Market!

Plates, Silverware, and Composting

OUR STORY SO FAR

Before supermarkets, people trusted their grocer at the local General Store for the best ingredients, advice and service.  He curated his products, was knowledgeable about them and served his customers well.

In the early twentieth century, the supermarket with its self-service model was introduced, and the days of the trustworthy, knowledgeable grocer were gone.  Rather than provide expertise, store staff simply stocked shelves and manned cash registers.  And information about each product was relegated to their packaging labels which meant it became the customer’s responsibility to understand the ingredients and know which items were best for their household.

Over the years, the font size listing the ingredients on the packages got smaller while the length of ingredients got longer and more complex.  It was common to find ingredients like Parabens, Triclosan and Sodium Laurel Sulphate in everyday items.  Since most consumers had no idea what these chemicals were, they had to trust the companies who packaged the products and food.

In 2016, people understand there are consequences to eating food and using products that contain ingredients with sci-fi names.

But, let’s be honest—even those who care deeply about what’s in the products they use and food they eat—who has the time or expertise to research these ingredients and identify the good from the bad?

We do.  And we have.

Preserve Large On the Go Plates are lightweight and festive but can also last and last.  We designed them to be dishwasher safe and withstand hundreds of uses.  Sold in packs of 8, the plates are affordable enough to have a whole party’s worth on hand.  At the end of your event, simply gather everything up and throw it in the dishwasher.  You’ll be ready to entertain at a moment’s notice!

Cutlery from Onyx

Onyx was founded in 2003 and has grown into a leader in the emerging sustainability sector of today’s marketplace.  We have a dynamic team with diverse business backgrounds and experience.  We share a common passion for sustainability in our personal lives as well as our workplace.  Our mission is to develop and expand innovative ways to bring more green products to the mainstream by offering diverse products lines at economic prices.  We’re actively involved in the community and we support ordinances and laws that help advance green initiatives.  We’re ambitious.  We’re passionate.  We’re innovative.  We’re Onyx.

All food scraps, cutlery, and napkins will be composted!

 

Collective Resource, Inc. is a woman-owned food scrap pickup service based in Evanston.  We collect all food waste and compostable products from homes, businesses, and institutions and take them to a commercial composting site.  The food scraps then become a nutrient-rich soil amendment instead of sitting in a landfill. Commercial composting is different from backyard composting, because anything that was once alive (including meat and dairy products) can be composted.  In addition to hauling compost, we educate the public about the importance of reducing landfill use.