Celebration of a small town
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Last year there was a very popular picture shared on Facebook about a farm-to-table dinner held in the street in Tennessee to support a farmer’s market featured in Grit Magazine.
At the time Lake County Community Development was planning our second annual Harvest! A Celebration of Local Food Fundraiser. The committee said, “We should do that,” and we did.
On a beautiful fall evening, Sept. 10, Lake County Community Development closed down the 400 Block of Main Street in Ronan and held its “Harvest! Dinner on Main” event. The event featured a local meal in the middle of Main Street, a silent auction, a bar and a live entertainment. There were 100 people in attendance, the food was fantastic and we reached our fundraising goal.
How was this possible? Lake County Community Development is committed to choosing local and this small town made it possible. Sponsorships poured in from local businesses who support our work. The City of Ronan, who is committed to revitalizing Downtown Ronan, approved the street closure and open container permit. Of course this is Montana, so we had to rent the tents and heaters, along with other event rentals, so we stayed local renting from St. Char-Ro. The silent auction featured local items collected from throughout the valley. Our bar was provided by our neighbors at 325 Bar and The Crawford Bros. Band from Montana was our live entertainment.
Lake County Community Development was able to provide a locally sourced and locally prepared meal in the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center kitchen with the help of local chefs and staff. Food was served by the Mission Valley FFA and dessert was provided by The Golden Yoke, a creamery in St. Ignatius.
Lake County Community Development is a private, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization located in Ronan, serving Lake, Mineral and Sanders Counties. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life and sustainable economic well-being of all residents of the communities we serve. Why would we need to have a fundraiser? We work hard to secure federal, state, and local grants to do the important work we do, but these grants require non-federal matching dollars. Lake County Community Development is an Economic Development Agency with four Centers:
—The Business Development Center provides technical assistance and financial assistance to new and growing businesses
—The Cooperative Development Center provides technical assistance to businesses and individuals desiring to establish collaborative business ventures
—The Community Development Center provides technical assistance for infrastructure projects and community facilities
—The Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center is a food business incubator and food processing center which assists in the development batch processing of specialty foods, value-added agriculture enterprises, and regulatory requirements related to food processing.
It is often hard for the public to understand exactly what economic development agencies actually do. Notable accomplishments over the past three years include:
—Provided access to 927 individuals and businesses to one or more of LCCDC’s services
—Offered technical assistance to 190 food businesses resulting in nearly 100 jobs created
—Assisted in the legal establishment of seven cooperatives in rural western Montana
—$3.2 million infused in our rural community support developing businesses through the LCCDC Loan Portfolio
—Leveraged an additional $8.4 million in Federal, State and Private funding during the period
—Supported the creation or retention of 205 jobs in the tri-county region with loan support
—Hosted 124 workshops or training events attended by nearly 1,300 small business owners and staff
—Secured nearly $1.5 million in direct Federal grants to support the technical assistance, cooperative development and local food promotion programs within the organization, over these past three years
—Currently manage a community revolving loan fund of more than 50 loans totaling more than $4 million dollars For more information about Lake County Community Development, please visit our website at www.lakecountycdc. org or visit us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Lake County Community Development is excited to be a part of creating a thriving Ronan. We will follow up Ronan’s Community Resource Assessment with a Ronan Branding Workshop hosted by the Montana Department of Commerce on Oct. 12 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Ronan Flower Mill. There is a monthly Ronan Rumors communications meeting one Thursday a month at 7:30 a.m. and a monthly Ronan Roundup Business Networking Social hosted by the Ronan Chamber of Commerce on the third Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at a rotating location.
For more information about Ronan, please visit www.ronanchamber.com, www.cityofronan.com, or visit Ronan Roots on Facebook.
