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Committee hears testimony backing renewal of rural grocery sustainability grant
Summary
Witnesses told the Appropriations - Government Operations Division that reauthorizing Senate Bill 2228 with a $1 million appropriation would help sustain and reopen small-town grocery stores, assist succession planning and support collaborative distribution efforts across North Dakota.
Senate committee members heard broad support for reauthorizing a rural grocery sustainability grant program and renewing a $1,000,000 appropriation during testimony on Senate Bill 2228.
The bill would reauthorize the Rural Grocery Sustainability Grant program, a pilot first funded in 2023, and focus aid on rural grocery stores — including funds to support existing stores, sequencing of store transitions and succession planning. Ellen Huber, rural development director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, told the committee that the 2023 pilot funded feasibility studies and business planning for nine towns and organizations and that the proposal would expand eligibility beyond collaboration projects to include existing stores.
The program "would reauthorize the rural food sustainability grant initially approved as a pilot in 2023 with $1,000,000 in funding," Huber said. She described the Rural Access Distribution cooperative as a model that has improved pricing, availability and variety of fresh foods for hub and spoke stores. Huber also said…
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