Feel like helping the world while filling your fridge with the best-tasting milk and eggs around? Local entrepreneur Paula Companio has been practicing grassroots activism in grocery form since 1982 with her small but mighty, earth-friendly grocery store.

Stop in and say hi to Paula herself, who is often found bustling around the store, figuring out new places to store and display the ever-growing stock on her shelves. The charming, sunlit space packs an impressive array. In the front of the store, you'll find a modest local produce spread, cheerfully labeled with handmade signs that tell you how to cook with non-traditional goodies like rutabagas. Move on toward the coolers and shelves for hormone-free milk (Indiana-based Traderspoint Creamery's chocolate version is to die for), organic soy milk, grass-fed meat, veggie chili, homemade cheese and fresh-baked bread delivered daily, along with a few prepared foods like healthy sandwiches and wraps. True Nature also offers non-food essentials like nontoxic home cleaners, detergent and pet products.

But the real beauty of True Nature is that Companio takes "sustainability" a step beyond for a seriously holistic look at community greening. One of the first to receive a Green Roof Grant from Chicago's Department of the Environment, Companio installed a green roof with the goal of producing the store's herbs and veggies on the premises. The store now sponsors the Edgewater Recycling Center, with a drop-off out back. True Nature also serves as a pick-up point for CSA boxes from King's Hill farm, encouraging shoppers to buy local at a weekly fixed price of $33 for a full share or $22 for a half share. Cha-ching, as they say.

Centerstage Reviewer: Julia Steinberger