Digital Commons Network^™

Community Funding: Rural Grocery Stores Like Ike!, Caley Love, Josh Ney, Steve Wassom, Lynn Hammes

Center for Engagement and Community Development

IKE is the “Invest Kansas Exemption” for conducting a public offering of securities in a Kansas community without having to register with the Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner (KSC). The Home Town Market in Minneola, KS used IKE to finance building renovations and equipment for the grocery store and deli. KSC presenters will explain how IKE and other alternatives for grocery store financing are possible under Kansas and federal securities laws.

IKE is designed to assist small businesses and other organizations formed in Kansas raise up to a total of $1,000,000 during a 12-month period. Sales to any one …

Using Policy To Promote Food Access In Rural Communities, Natasha Frost, Mary Marrow

Center for Engagement and Community Development

The availability of quality, affordable, and accessible food is a critical issue in Kansas. As the rural food environment evolves, it is important to understand the role of policy in that evolution. With the support of the Kansas Health Foundation, Minnesota-based Public Health Law Center attorneys have been looking at state and local laws and policies in Kansas and how these laws and policies can be used to support efforts to expand access to healthy food throughout Kansas.

We are working with local communities and state-level groups to figure out what would work for Kansas. For example, in our backyard …

Opportunities, Challenges And Myths: Selling Locally Grown Food In Your Grocery Store, Greg Schweser, Kathryn Draeger

Center for Engagement and Community Development

Rural grocery stores are well positioned to take advantage of the growing local foods movement and the shop local movement. In this session, farmers, grocers, regulators, and educators come together to identify and discuss the opportunities and barriers to selling locally grown food in rural grocery stores. Are customers asking for locally grown foods? Do you know if you allowed to sell locally grown foods purchased directly from area farmers? How can farm to grocery store connections be used to differentiate your store from the competition and attract new customers?

Sustaining Rural Communities In The Northwest, Spencer Masterson, Sharon Thornberry

Center for Engagement and Community Development

Since 2009, Oregon Food Bank, in partnership with the Rural Grocery Initiative, has surveyed over 80 owners of independently owned grocery stores throughout rural Oregon. Their ideas, struggles, successes and stories are shared in the report Sustaining Rural Communities. These surveys are part of Oregon Food Bank’s broader effort to build and strengthen community food systems through community organizing (utilizing OFB’s FEAST model) and coordination of grassroots-based community food assessments.

Our presentation focuses on the findings of this report along with highlighting profiles of several “model stores”. We also introduce OFB’s community food organizing model FEAST and share examples of …