Two Buchanan County Businesses Awarded Rural Innovation Grants

Two Buchanan County businesses are among eight recipients of the latest round of Rural Innovation Grants, announced Wednesday by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The grants, awarded through the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, total over $70,000.

The Rural Innovation Grant program encourages creative solutions to challenges faced by towns that have fewer than 20,000 residents and are not located next to cities with populations of 40,000 or more.

The local grant recipients include:

Winthrop — Fat Chef’s Catering, doing business at Nicks’ Family Grocery (awarded nearly a $20,000 grant)
Equipment additions — including convection ovens, a Broaster and insulated food pan carriers — will support in-store take-and-bake meals and enable the delivery of hot, made-from-scratch food to households within a 5-mile radius.

Independence — Gedney Bakery & Coffeehouse (awarded a $5,000 grant)
The launch of a grab-and-go menu and expansion into small-event catering requires new equipment for food preparation, display, storage and delivery.

The next round of Rural Innovation Grant funding opened July 1st and focuses on increasing rural housing availability. The deadline to apply is August 29th.