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Tag: Rural Grocery Initiative

Fred Smith, Tipton Grocery

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Four people standing in front of Tipton Grocery
(l to r) Brandi Shirack, Drew Shirack, Vali Smith, Fred Smith

Transitions. Those can be challenging, exciting, scary and difficult – all at the same time. They are also a part of life.

Ownership transitions can be especially challenging for businesses in small towns. Today we’ll meet the owners of a rural grocery store that has served its community for more than a century, and now has successfully made a transition to new ownership.

Fred and Vali Smith have been the longtime owners of Tipton Grocery. Tipton is in Mitchell County, southwest of Beloit.

Fred Smith’s grandparents farmed near Tipton. Fred lived here until he was five. “My dad was a state trooper and we were transferred all over Kansas,” Smith said. In the summers, Smith and his brothers would often come back to the farm.

Smith joined the Army and was stationed in Germany where he met and married Vali. They returned to the States where Fred worked in law enforcement in Chicago, and Vali was supervisor at a bank.

Fred and Vali made occasional trips back home with their kids to Tipton to see the family. During one of those times Mrs. Pfeiffer, the owner of the local grocery store, told them that they should stay and take over the store, but Fred and Vali both had good jobs in Chicago.

Continue reading “Fred Smith, Tipton Grocery” →

Kaden and Emily Roush, LaDow’s Market

Posted on by Pat Melgares

Today let’s go to the center of the country to visit an innovative family which has centered its business on high quality, locally produced fresh food, including their own specialty pork.

Storefront, Ladow's Market, Lebanon, Kansas
Ladow’s Market (Lebanon, Kan.)

Last week we met Kaden and Emily Roush, the owners of R Family Farms near Lebanon — the geographic center of the contiguous United States. The Roushes operate a niche hog production system involving Berkshire pigs. What is the history of Berkshire hogs?

According to legend, 300 years ago Oliver Cromwell’s army was encamped in winter quarters at Reading, the county seat of the shire of Berks in England. They discovered the hogs there to be larger than any swine of the time and to produce ham and bacon of remarkable quality. That was the beginning of the Berkshire breed.

For years, the royal family kept a large herd of Berkshires at Windsor Castle due to the excellent carcass quality of the hogs. In 1823, the first Berkshires were imported to the U.S. In 1875 the American Berkshire Association was created, becoming the first swine registry to be established in the world.

In modern times, Kaden took note of the carcass quality of these hogs. For example, in a summary of tests conducted over a 20-year span at the National Barrow Show in Austin, Minnesota, Berkshire pigs scored highest of all major American pure breeds in sensory quality.

R Family Farms began raising Berkshire hogs. The business now specializes in private label production and direct online marketing of their Berkshire pork. R Family Farms is a member of the From the Land of Kansas program of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Continue reading “Kaden and Emily Roush, LaDow’s Market” →

Marilyn Logan, Marmaton Market

Posted on by Pat Melgares

Second Saturday. Trivia Tuesday.

Marilyn Logan, Marmaton Market
Marmaton Market (Moran, Kan.)

Do those events sound like items on the calendar at your local grocery store? They might not be what one would expect, but those are examples of creative events that one rural grocery store is using to expand and engage its customer base.

Marilyn Logan is general manager of The Marmaton Market in Moran, a rural Allen County community of 466 people – but there’s more. Marilyn grew up in the Crawford County community of Walnut, Kansas, population 187 people. Now, that’s rural.

“My dad taught us a good work ethic,” Logan said. She earned a degree in business with a minor in accounting and worked for years as an accountant and auditor. She raised four sons and is now widowed. She has 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Marilyn moved back to southeast Kansas in 2016. “I like little towns,” Logan said. She serves on several local volunteer boards such as the Iola Public Library, Iola Housing Authority, Allen County GROW and SEKCAP.

In Moran, the local grocery store owners were wanting to retire. In 2018, the store was purchased by a group of citizens who formed what Logan called a for-profit semi-cooperative. She served on the board. They named the store The Marmaton Market.

“The first thing we did was take everything down to the bare walls,” Logan said. They added LED lighting, remodeled and restocked the store. By December 2019, the store was struggling financially again. Logan took over as general manager.

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Danny Scott, Caney Community Betterment Group Foundation

Posted on by Pat Melgares

“Betterment: The act or process of improving something.”

This definition certainly applies to the work of a group of volunteers who are helping to improve their rural southeast Kansas community.

Woman and man standing together, looking at camera
Norma and Danny Scott

Danny Scott is with the Caney Community Betterment Group Foundation. He told of how Caney has made progress, thanks to the Kansas PRIDE Program, First Impressions, Rural Grocery Initiative, the City of Caney and members of the community.

Danny and his wife Norma have rural roots. They grew up in Chautauqua County near the rural community of Niotaze, population 82 people. Now, that’s rural.

Danny and Norma were in 4-H together and went to K-State before getting married. He started working at the bank in Caney during the summers and joined the bank full-time after earning his ag economics degree. He then worked for a computer network company in Coffeyville before coming back to Caney’s Community National Bank & Trust, from which he retired in 2019. He had become quite concerned about the community’s trajectory.

“Caney was running downhill,” Danny said. Downtown businesses were boarded up, the grocery store had closed, the town’s old swimming pool was leaking, and the chamber of commerce closed down. “It was discouraging,” Danny said.

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Joel Lovesee, Bluestem school

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

What was in your school classroom? I remember desks in straight rows, colorful posters on the wall, and a big blackboard up front. Today we’ll meet a school which has such classrooms, but also non-traditional places of learning such as a working barn and a downtown business. These innovative projects are being implemented by a school district in rural Kansas.

Bluestem Mercantile
Bluestem Mercantile

Joel Lovesee is superintendent of USD 205, which includes the Bluestem schools in Leon, Kansas. Joel grew up in Kinsley and went to Fort Hays State University where he met his wife Sonya. He became a teacher and later a school administrator. In 2008, he and his family moved to Leon where he became school principal. He was promoted to superintendent in 2013.

He takes an innovative approach to school leadership. Continue reading “Joel Lovesee, Bluestem school” →