April 04, 2025

Grocery stores are a must in rural communities

By Kelsey Willardson, policy associate, Center for Rural Affairs

Letters to the editor (123RF.)

Rural grocery stores across Iowa serve as vital social hubs and points of food access for local communities. Their closure can be devastating.

In 2020, the only grocery store in Gowrie started to struggle, threatening the vibrancy of the town with a population of approximately 900.

The loss of a local grocery store can noticeably harm a small town. Residents unable to travel frequently, including the elderly, disabled, and those with limited incomes or without reliable transportation, are hit the hardest.

When locals must travel farther for essentials, they end up spending their money elsewhere instead of investing it back into their community. Furthermore, decreased access to healthy food options can negatively affect overall community health.

Gowrie’s community members recognized the importance of their local store. They took action, raising the funds needed to purchase the business, forming an LLC, and selling shares to community members. Today, Market on Market continues to serve the town.

However, the store faces typical small rural business difficulties, like maintaining long-term staff and coping with surprise expenses. Its building is nearly a century old, which means significant maintenance expenses. Through the aid of grants and community support, the committee has replaced the roof, furnace, and point-of-sale system.

Unexpected costs still occur. This year, the freezer needed repair, which required a dip into the community fund.

The challenges Gowrie’s store has encountered are common for the rural groceries around the state that serve as vital social hubs and points of food access for their local communities.

Iowa House File 550 supports these community staples, providing grants that enable grocery stores to make improvements and address the needs of their communities.

We encourage lawmakers to continue moving this bill forward to support vibrant small towns and the grocery stores essential to them.

To learn more about Market on Market, visit cfra.org/blog/market-on-market.