Ellen Huber, rural development director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, speaks during a grant announcement on Aug. 4, 2025, in Mandan. The association is working to help sustain rural grocery stores. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
A pilot program aims to help sustain rural North Dakota grocery stores by developing a joint distribution network and keeping more locally produced food in the state, organizers announced Monday.
The North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives is leading the project with a $12.6 million investment from the Bush Foundation.
North Dakota has 90 small-town grocery stores, down from 137 in 2014, according to the association. These closures have led to a rise in food deserts, or areas where residents have to drive 10 miles or more to the nearest grocery store.
Some rural grocery stores pay more for wholesale products than larger chains charge customers, said Ellen Huber, rural development director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.
Even though North Dakota leads the nation in the production of various crops, those crops must be processed at facilities out of state and then returned to the stores at higher prices, Huber said.
The pilot project will involve a food hub in north-central North Dakota to store and distribute local foods and other groceries. Six to eight grocery stores within 100 miles of Minot are interested in collaborating, Huber said, and more partners could be added.
The initiative seeks to band rural grocery stores together to leverage their collective purchasing power to lower wholesale prices for each participating store.
The hub would help local producers keep more of their products in the state and flowing almost directly to North Dakota rural grocery shelves, Huber said.
“By building the infrastructure to support aggregation, distribution and coordinated purchasing, we can move beyond niche markets and make local food a consistent, reliable option for everyday North Dakotans,” she said.
Quinn Renfandt, specialty crop farmer and owner of Betty’s Acres in Minot, said the program will help smaller operators be more competitive.
“Producing food, at any scale, isn’t an easy business, especially on the smaller scale many of us in the Minot area operate at,” Renfandt said in a statement. “This program offers another tool to continue working smarter throughout the entire supply chain.”
Lyndsay Ulrickson, North Dakota grantmaking officer for the Bush Foundation, said the rural grocery distribution grant addresses a critical need in North Dakota. If successful, the project could be expanded regionally.
“We hope that our investment inspires others to consider investing in this important work as well,” she said.
The program will be developed over several years, with the first two to three years focused on gathering information from rural grocers and food producers. By year three or four of the program, Huber said she hopes the food hub will be complete with testing to follow.
“It is more of a marathon than a sprint,” Huber said. “I know rural grocers can’t wait five years, so we are really optimistic and hopeful that we can dig in, work hard, and get rural grocers in that north-central area collaborating within a year’s time to help reduce those wholesale prices.”
North Dakota Monitor reporter Michael Achterling can be reached at [email protected].
Editor’s note: The North Dakota Monitor is a recipient of funding from the Bush Foundation through its media partnership program.
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