News

Wisconsin & Minnesota get USDA Rural Development grants

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development has awarded a third year of funding to Cooperative Network and the University of Wisconsin Center for

Cooperatives (UWCC) to develop rural economies through cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The $200,000 grant will focus on health care, local food systems, energy efficiency, senior housing, cooperative education, conversions to employee-owned businesses, and a transportation fuel purchasing co-op for Wisconsin school districts.

Cooperative Network president and CEO Bill Oemichen says, “Much of this work to build local communities is unique and innovative.” The USDA grants provide funding for nonprofit groups and higher education institutions to create and operate centers that help establish, expand, or operate rural businesses, particularly cooperatives and mutually-owned enterprises.

With this funding, Cooperative Network and UWCC’s Great Lakes Cooperative Center will support seven main areas of rural development:

1. Increasing rural health care access and quality, including the development of national Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OP), 40 Square Cooperative Solutions in Minnesota and the Farmers’ Health Cooperative of Wisconsin, as well as potential development of cooperative insurance for rural Wisconsin hospitals;
2. Developing local food systems in both states;
3. Exploring new energy efficiency models, including mutual ownership of local renewable electric generation projects;
4. Enhancing senior housing outreach through the annual Senior Cooperative Housing Conference as well as quarterly education programs;
5. Targeting cooperative education outreach to state and local economic development professionals;
6. Developing employee ownership of businesses in transition; and
7. Working with the Wisconsin Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESAs) to establish a transportation fuel purchasing cooperative for the state’s school districts.

AUDIO:Oemichen talks about the grants 6:53 mp3

Cooperative Network serves more than 600 Wisconsin and Minnesota member-cooperatives by providing government relations, education, marketing, and technical services for a wide variety of cooperatives including farm supply, health, dairy marketing, consumer, financial, livestock marketing, telecommunications, electric, housing, insurance, worker-owned cooperatives, and more. For more information about Cooperative Network, visit http://www.cooperativenetwork.coop/index.html.

 Established in 1962, the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives focuses on education, research, and outreach on all aspects of the cooperative business model, including development, finance, structure, and governance. The Center’s interdisciplinary programs build on the resources of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Wisconsin Extension, and are implemented through partnerships with UW faculty, staff, and extension agents, federal and state agencies, state cooperative councils, cooperative business groups, and others. For more information, visit http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/.