In rural communities across Nebraska, a cooperative is not a new or novel idea. The ag cooperative is often a recognized punctuation mark in the town skyline or as the economic anchor in the region. Yet co-ops are much more than a grain elevator, the community’s lead employer, or even a grocery store.
Co-ops represent people coming together to meet shared economic, social and cultural needs. Leveraging this tested approach with the present need for local grocery access, Lynch — nestled in Boyd County, Neb. — came together to form a grocery cooperative, breathing new life and vitality into the community.
As a Rural Prosperity Nebraska Extension educator, I have the honor of serving Lynch and other communities across the north-central region of the state. So, in early 2021, when my colleague and mentor with the Nebraska Cooperative Development Center invited me to join weekly calls with the Lynch team, I jumped at the chance to learn more about the community, the cooperative development process, and to support the newly formed Valley Foods Cooperative team.
What I did not expect was to experience rural community development at its best. The Lynch team, operating from a place of shared and servant leadership, negated this notion of being too small to matter, and instead created a model for others to emulate.
Hard at work
Rather than wait to be saved, let their elders and low-income residents languish without local grocery access, or watch young families move away for the lack of this basic amenity, the community came together to find and forge a solution.
The multigenerational cooperative team and community volunteered innumerable hours planning, cleaning, refurbishing and eventually managing the store. Moreover, they leveraged their personal networks, inviting the community, alumni and funders to invest in the cooperative, the community and the residents of Lynch. There was never mention of personal gain or ambition, or the making of profit beyond sustainability.
In so many ways, Lynch residents embody effective rural community development and the characteristics and capacities that the LEAD program seeks to instill in men and women in agriculture across our state.
LEAD challenges participants to not only identify local, national and global issues, but also to understand the complexities and contexts behind them, and proactively act toward the common goal and need for agricultural advocacy.
Threaded together by agriculture, LEAD brings together Nebraskans from varied sectors and communities. The solutions and advocacy for our vocations and communities require this array of voices and perspectives.
What works in Bertrand or Grant may not work in Palmer or Ainsworth. Instead, careful examination, listening and drawing upon resources such as Nebraska Extension help us build communities that support the well-being of all, including our global neighbors.
Moreover, LEAD prompts fellows to lead not only for ourselves, but also as an act of service and support for those around us — an approach that undergirds traditional ag cooperatives and new cooperatives such as grocery stores in communities across Nebraska.
Rasmussen is a graduate of LEAD 38.
This story originally ran on farmprogress.com.