Protection Community Venture
Community: Protection, Kansas
County: Comanche
Region: South-Central
Geographical Context: Rural
Date Funded: March 2019
Protection Community Venture in Protection is a grocery store that reopened as a community-owned store in 2010 after the previous owners retired. Community members are shareholders of the store and its board of directors is made up of local business owners who operate manufacturing, retail, and production agriculture businesses in the area. When the community purchased the store, it included outdated refrigeration and cooling equipment, from as far back as the 1960s. Protection Community Venture received a $7,500 grant from the Kansas Healthy Food Initiative in addition to USDA REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) funding to upgrade older freezers and coolers and to install energy efficient lighting. Through this grant, the Protection Community Venture store will decrease utility costs and product loss from inefficient cooling, and also provide their customers a reliable source of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat and dairy products.
“The State of Kansas benefits when Protection Community Venture and other local businesses are able to collaborate efforts to make their community function in a viable manner.”
– Protection Community Venture