Rural Health Network of South Central New York is pleased to announce our upcoming webinar, A Fresh Outlook for Rural Food Retail: Business Transitions and Cooperative Ownership! The webinar will be hosted on May 25th from 10:00 am to 11:30 am and is the first in a series that will take place over the next few months. Rural food access is a complex problem. Disinvestment in rural areas over the past several decades resulted in population losses and the decline of food and retail businesses. Rural food retailers have struggled to stay open as economic conditions increased the miles people are traveling to work and shifted shopping habits away from community stores and towards regional shopping centers. Communities across the country are promoting rural food access and stopping the closure of rural food retail in a variety of innovative ways. The Rural Food Retail Webinar Series: A Fresh Outlook for Rural Food Retail will highlight these successes while connecting stakeholders and developing an engaged learning community. Representatives from local and regional economic development agencies, local and regional planning and community development officials, foundations, university representatives, rural food retail operators, and other food system and community development professionals will all benefit from the series. The first webinar on Retail Business Transitions and Cooperative Ownership will feature speakers examining innovative ways that current business owners can transition their stores to new owners or promote new types of cooperative ownership possibilities. The presentation will also feature members of Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative, a rural food retail cooperative based in Otsego County, New York. It will feature: Stuart Reid, Executive Director, Food Co-op Initiative Danielle Delaini, Business Transition Program Coordinator, Adirondack North Country Association Dan Sullivan and Amy Wyant, Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative Register here!
