Rural Grocery Store Survey: At-a-Glance

Overview

This fact sheet is the first in a series that share “at-a-glance” findings from questions related to what it is like to run a grocery store in rural Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) worked with the Minnesota Center for Survey Research to conduct a statewide survey of Minnesota’s rural grocers, with the findings presented here. 

Rural Grocery Ownership Models: Community Owned Enterprises

Overview

The ability to address community challenges collectively and adapt to changing needs is critical to community sustainability. Those towns that are able to work cooperatively are usually linked by both economic and social relationships and are able to develop a deep sense of community and even entrepreneurship. Furthermore, these communities encourage diversity, inclusivity and acceptance, and innovativeness, features that contribute to overall quality of life and attracting and retaining new residents. 

Exploring Stories of Innovation

Overview

Exploring Stories of Innovation is a series of short articles that explore how local governments from across the United States are strengthening their community’s food system through planning and policy. Beginning in 2012, Growing Food Connections (GFC) conducted a national scan and identified 299 local governments across the United States that are developing and implementing a range of innovative plans, public programs, regulations, laws, financial investments and other policies to strengthen the food system. GFC conducted exploratory telephone interviews with 20 of these local governments. This series highlights some of the unique planning and policy strategies used by some of these urban and rural local governments to enhance community food security while ensuring sustainable and economically viable agriculture and food production.

WEBINAR-Funding Your Healthy Food Project with USDA Resources

Overview

As a nation, we must foster a food system that ensures urban and rural communities have access to fresh and healthy foods; small and mid-size farmers can produce and market food in an economically and sustainable manner; and consumers have the resources they need to live healthy and productive lives.
 
This webinar introduces the audience to several programs at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and provide examples of how USDA funding is being tapped to improve access to healthy foods and support local food system development in low-income urban communities.

Rural Childhood Obesity Prevention Toolkit

Overview

Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, developed the Rural Childhood Obesity Prevention Toolkit to help local and state leaders advance innovative, evidence-informed strategies for improving health in rural towns, counties, tribal lands, and schools.

Profile: Desert Rain Food Service, Tohono O'odham Nation

Overview

For the Tohono O'odham Tribe in southwestern and central Arizona, food is the foundation of health, culture, community, family, and economies. Since 1996, the grassroots community organization Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) has been dedicated to improving the health, cultural vitality, sustainability, and economic revitalization for the Tohono O’odham Nation.

This fall, thanks to TOCA’s new school food enterprise, Desert Rain Food Services, 700 children on the Tohono O'odham Nation will be served healthier school food sourced from local farmers. TOCA received a $300,000 Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) grant to pilot a school food service enterprise that supports healthier eating and a strong indigenous food economy.

Understanding the Role of Community Development Finance in Improving Access to Healthy Food

Overview

Describes the role CDFIs play in financing healthy food retail and identifies how public health practitioners can partner with CDFIs to expand access to fresh, healthy food. CDFIs offer an alternative to conventional lending for financing supermarkets and other small businesses. The flexibility they provide in financing projects can help retailers offset the higher cost of opening stores in underserved areas.

Shining a Light in Dark Places: Raising Up the Work of Southern Women of Color in the Food System

Overview

In this report, CSI Food Equity Fellow Shorlette Ammons describes the realities of current and past food systems from the perspectives of Southern women of color.  Shorlette argues that we can achieve equitable food systems change by: 1) changing the narrative; 2) identifying food systems policy that directly affects women and children; 3) developing women of color leadership to lead the policy change; 4) building capacity and developing organizations; and 5) finding ways to sustain family farms.

Rural Grocery Tool Kit

Overview

This resource library or “tool kit” is designed to provide resources to two primary audiences: those who are considering establishing a grocery store; and existing rural grocery store owners.

WEBINAR-Healthy Food Retail in Rural Communities

Overview

Rural grocery stores anchor a community by supplying fresh foods and staples; creating local jobs; attracting complementary businesses; and increasing the tax base. Today they are under siege because of competition with “big box” stores for customers; high energy costs, the inability to buy products in small quantities; elderly owners with no succession plans, and low population density. This webinar explores the unique challenges that rural grocers face and discuss innovative solutions to improving access to healthy foods in rural America.

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