Last September, NCF was awarded $90,000 from the USDA Rural Development Office through its Socially Disadvantaged Group Grant (SDGG) program. These funds will support community improvement projects in NCF’s client cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The grant focuses on three of the most chronic challenges facing NCF’s client co-ops: stormwater management, storm shelters, and vacant lot infill.
“The award will allow NCF and our client co-ops to capitalize on recent successes and leverage that success to accelerate innovative, practical, and cost-effective solutions to ongoing infrastructure issues. The solutions developed will not only improve the health, safety, and quality of life for individual co-op members, but will also improve the overall health and financial performance of the larger cooperative corporation to which the members belong,” NCF’s Executive Director Victoria Clark said.
The grant period beings in January 2021 and goes through the end of the calendar year.
Read the press release for more information.
In addition to developing stormwater management and vacant lot infill solutions, the SDGG award will be used to engage an architect to develop cost-effective prototype designs for dual-use storm shelter and community buildings. This activity builds on the success of shelter prototype design work NCF completed in 2016. The 2016 designs were used to develop a successful funding application to Minnesota Housing for a first of its kind stand-alone storm shelter project completed in 2019 at Park Plaza Cooperative in Fridley, MN. The photo above pictures Park Plaza residents, NCF staff, state elected officials, and Minnesota Housing Finance Agency staff who attended the grand opening celebration of the building in April 2019.
An architectural rendering of the Park Plaza storm shelter building. Credit: TSP Architects & Engineers.
