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Many rural Nebraska communities face increasing challenges to maintain and support their locally based stores and provide much-needed services such as childcare and adult homecare.
Innovative solutions are emerging with the cooperative model.
- Four cooperative grocery stores opened in Nebraska in the last three years: Farm to Family Cooperative in Hays Springs; Post 60 Market in Emerson; Valley Foods Cooperative in Lynch, and Centennial Market Cooperative in Utica.
- Beatrice is exploring the formation of a real estate investment cooperative focused on benefits to the community. The investment approach gives individuals a way to work together to make things happen.
- Norfolk is forming an employer-assisted childcare program, and NCDC is exploring forming a shared services childcare cooperative. Childcare cooperatives can be organized by parents, employers, workers, or a combination of the above.
- Arapahoe has formed a worker-owned home homecare cooperative, which shows a viable option for care for elderly citizens within their own communities.
- The Omaha tribe is introducing indigenous cooperative models that have led to initial conversations with tribal members focused on arts and local foods.