Washburn grocery store gets federal grant
By MATT BUEDEL
Peoria Journal Star (Illinois)
December 5, 2008
WASHBURN — The state's only community-owned grocery store will look to expand its base with the help of a federal grant aimed at fostering rural development through aid to cooperatives.
Washburn Community Foods, the co-op that started about eight years ago to save the Woodford County town's only grocery store after it was about to fold, on Thursday accepted $10,000 to bolster its marketing efforts.
Charlie Kennell, president of the grocery association, said the money also will be used to help recruit new members and retain existing members of the cooperative.
The grant is being administered through the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA), which is based at Western Illinois University in Macomb. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development center provided the funds as part of a $200,000 grant to the IIRA.
"It creates a great bridge for us," Douglas Wilson, Illinois director of rural development for the USDA said of the relationship with the IIRA, which works with rural communities to develop and sustain projects that have an economic impact on areas with low-population densities. "We're approaching half a billion dollars in federal funding going back to rural Illinois."
Fred Iutzi, program manager for the IIRA's Value-Added Sustainable Development Center, which works directly with emerging and existing cooperatives, said the Washburn Community Foods cooperative was one of the first co-ops the agency helped when it formed.
Iutzi said cooperatives are struggling in the economic downturn just like other businesses, but that the situation also gives new and established co-ops a chance to enter ventures that otherwise could be financially impossible.
"It's a bit of a rocky time to be getting going," he said. "If there's any unique benefits, it would be the opportunity for a community buy-in."
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