Zoom meeting recording of the USDA roundtable discussion with Vice Chancellor Mike Boehm, RPN Director Mary Emery, Under Secretary Jennifer Moffitt, and additional partners of the $25M Regional Food Business Center grant.

The Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference is hosted by Rural Prosperity Nebraska and takes place over two days in a different Nebraska community each year. While focused on economic and entrepreneurial development, what sets this conference apart is the format. Instead of being in a single auditorium, each CEC session takes place inside different locally-owned businesses of the hosting community. So attendees get to not only see the city, but network with like-minded business owners, and experience the community’s culture and entrepreneurial spirit.

There’s an old saying that you don’t know your own backyard. Referring to tourist attractions, the adage conveys a common belief that New Yorkers never go to Times Square, and Arizonans never visit the Grand Canyon. Whether that’s true or not, hometowns often feel so familiar that residents don’t consider what impressions they give to outsiders. First Impressions Online, Rural Prosperity Nebraska’s newest community development program, gives people a view of their own backyard.

Finding childcare that is high in quality and low in cost is a struggle for many parents. Particularly in Nebraska. The Cornhusker State is the ninth most expensive state for childcare for married couples, and fourth most expensive for single parents. To help close this growing gap, many communities across Nebraska are getting creative in how they’re making childcare more accessible and more affordable for their residents. And Rural Prosperity Nebraska is helping.

“Hometown.” The word often evokes a sense of nostalgia, when life was simpler, safer, better. But there’s nothing to say that the town you live in now can’t feel the same way. Marketing Hometown America is a program where Rural Prosperity Nebraska Extension educators help make your community a home. Not just for you, but for the long-time residents, the newcomers, and even those looking to move there.

Rural Nebraska communities are no strangers to cooperatives. Between the panhandle and the Missouri, you can find any number of cooperative grocery stores in Nebraska. But foods and markets aren’t the only kinds of cooperatives in the Cornhusker state. In Beatrice, Michael Sothan, the executive director of Main Street Beatrice, is establishing a real estate cooperative to stimulate economic growth and community pride in the town.

Jordan Rasmussen promotes the Rural Fellows program for Summer 2023, originally scripted for KRBX.

A common saying is the dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. That’s especially true when it comes to eating healthy. But the Hometown Market in Red Cloud is the newest grocery store in Nebraska to make it a little easier to bring fresher, healthier foods to your table, by implementing the Double Up Food Bucks program.

Learn about the Community Fellows Program.