The Kodiak Harvest Food Cooperative, or KHFC, has been awarded a nearly $293,000 award from the United States Department of Agriculture Local Foods Promotion Program. The award will be matched at 25% from member investments and in volunteer hours, making for an additional $73,000.
These funds will go a long way to bringing the KHFC dream to fruition; a sustainable community-operated grocery store for local fish and produce, ideally over the course of the next three years.
“Our long term vision at the beginning when we had first started the project, four or five years ago, was really to build a community owned full-service grocery store, that emphasizes locally harvested seafood and produce and then supplemented with regionally sourced goods,” Tyler Kornelis, president of the board of directors for KHFC said.
“So this local foods promotion program grant fits directly into our vision and our long term goal of being a source for locally grown produce and locally caught seafood in the Kodiak community.”
Kornelis says this grant will allow them to start an online marketplace for local produce, which could go on to fund the long-term goal of building a new grocery store in Kodiak.
“So they know what’s available in advance, and then they would come and pick up that produce that they’ve ordered and paid for in advance– could be a good opportunity at that same time to purchase other produce that’s available in the retail environment, but it does allow people to gain access to produce in advance of the produce actually being harvested, so that a farmer can harvest the right amount of produce instead of over harvesting and hoping that everything they harvest will sell,” Kornelis said.
Those looking to learn more can find out more online.
“If people in the community want to find out more about the Kodiak Harvest Food Cooperative, you can visit our website at Kodiakharvest.org. We are recruiting for a project director at this time and the job description is on our website. Please come and take a look,” Kornelis said.