K-State Extension - Rural Grocery Initiative

We were excited to present Lori Capouch with our Grocery Champion of the Year Award at the 2026 National Rural Grocery Summit!

Her nominator wrote: "Lori’s work has directly strengthened rural grocery viability through leadership, coalition-building, and practical innovation grounded in the realities of rural communities. For more than 30 years, she has served as a behind-the-scenes cooperative development champion who travels to small towns to help address quality-of-life challenges—especially food access." You can learn more about Lori here: https://www.ruralgrocery.org/summit/awards/

Congratulations, Lori, and thank you for all you have done for rural grocers!

NDAREC & U of MN Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships

Yesterday we held four pre-conference tours across Minnesota and North Dakota as part of the 2026 National Rural Grocery Summit! Check out these pictures from some of the attendees who visited innovative rural grocery and food access sites across the two states. We're so excited to be officially kicking the Summit off with our opening plenary session this morning!

📢 Grant Opportunity! The HFFI FARE Fund is Now Accepting Grant and Technical Assistance Applications.

Are you working to expand access to healthy foods for retail sale in your community? The Healthy Food Financing Initiative Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund (HFFI FARE Fund) is offering grants and technical assistance to support food retailers and post-harvest food retail supply chain enterprises working to improve healthy food access in underserved areas.

Learn more and apply here:

2026 FARE Fund | America's Healthy Food Financing Initiative The HFFI Food Access and Retail Expansion Fund (HFFI FARE Fund) is a new program under the expanded America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

We are excited to present the Rural Grocer of the Year Award at the 2026 National Rural Grocery Summit! Across the board, grocers deserve recognition and thanks for all they do for our communities. This award recognizes independent rural grocers who have demonstrated excellence in community engagement, innovation, customer service, and more. We are excited to announce the following individuals as our three finalists for this award:
⭐ Bonnie Maas, Bonnies Hometown Grocery
⭐ Meta Jo Riseling, Walsh Community Grocery Store
⭐ Emily and Kaden Roush, Main Street Mercantile

Read about our award finalists here: https://ruralgrocery.org/learn/rural-grocery-spotlight/rural-grocer-of-the-year-finalists.html

Join us for the evening reception on Wednesday, May 6th as we announce the winner of this award at the Summit!