Featured Grants

Producers & Buyers Co-op, Altoona, WI

Feasibility Study and Business Plan Development

Surrounded by farms and local produce, many institutions purchase food shipped from long distances because barriers such as seasonal production, quantity, transportation, processing, pricing and delivery stand in the way of purchasing local foods. Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, WI and the River County RC&D Council worked together to overcome these barriers. As result of their efforts, the Producers and Buyers Co-op was launched with the goal to facilitate buying and selling for farmers in a 12 county area in Central Wisconsin. The Feasibility Study and Business Plan Development will look at how to expand the Co-op’s operations and bring in additional buyer members. The Cooperative Foundation sees this effort as a model for facilitating institutional purchase of local foods across the US. More information about Producers and Buyers Co-op.

Center for Rural Affairs, Lyons, NE

Reviving Local Rural Grocery Stores Through Cooperative Ownership

The loss of a grocery store in a rural community impacts access to food, accelerates depopulation and economic decline in communities. Scattered communities have started or saved local groceries through alternative ownership structures, including cooperatives. There is little information available to communities on how effective such efforts are and how communities can develop a model to be sustainable both as a business structure and a community institution. The Cooperative Foundation’s grant to the Center of Rural Affairs will finance research to analyze and develop models for local and cooperative ownership of local grocery stores in rural communities. Learn more about this research at www.cfra.org.

“Legacies and Impacts"

An exploration of the history and significance of Minnesota's consumer food co-ops

Author and Photographer Martin Brown acknowledges the support of the people and organizations whose support made “Legacies and Impacts” possible. These include his parents, the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom, North American Students of Cooperation, Ride into History, the Virginia Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, Life Skills Education, The Cooperative Foundation, the Blooming Prairie Foundation, and the Communications and SSC faculty of Antioch College. “Legacies and Impacts” is the intellectual property of its author, Martin Brown. Interviewees featured in “Legacies and Impacts” retain specific rights to their content as well. Use of material by other parties must be expressly approved in writing. Feedback and requests for copies of the extended publication version of “Legacies and Impacts” can be directed to mabrown@graffiti.net

Legacies and Impacts.pdf

Press Release

The Cooperative Foundation Announces 2008 Funding Priorities

The Cooperative Foundation announced funding priorities for 2008. Funding priorities are: Cooperative education related speakers at meetings and conventions; Research in cooperatives; Development and distribution of cooperative education materials and programs; Attendance at cooperative education programs through support of the Ralph K. Morris Foundation; Innovative cooperative development projects in collaboration with other funders.