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| Student Ariel Shields doing work-based learning class at Circle C. (Courtesy photo via Flatwater Free Press) |
Small-town grocery stores have closed at an alarming rate over the past two decades. "Teachers in Cody-Kilgore, a small district nestled in the Nebraska Sandhills, were determined not to let that be their town's story," reports Heidi Beguin of the Flatwater Free Press. They wondered if a student-run grocery store could be the answer.
If necessity is indeed the mother of invention, teachers, administrators, parents and the project's workhorses -- students -- all got on board to support the idea. "Nearly two decades after the idea first surfaced, the Circle C Market – a student-run grocery store . . . continues to serve Cody and the nearby areas," Beguin writes. The store is open six days a week and "represents far more than groceries. It’s a symbol of small-town grit, of neighbors helping neighbors."
Community tenacity is great, but so are the hands-on labor and management skills students learn running the market. And the village "gets a local option in what would otherwise be a grocery desert, with the nearest option being a 40-mile drive down U.S. Highway 20 to Valentine," Beguin explains. "Enrollment in the district has ticked up slightly from 140 students in the 2013-14 school year to 156 currently. Earlier this summer, voters approved a bond to build a new school."
Stacey Adamson was one of the original teachers who floated the idea of a student-run grocery, and she has watched the people and students grow through the project's development. She "believes the learning experience for the students, some of whom come from hard home lives, is worth the challenge. 'By the end of their time there … they will look you in the eye. They’ll say ‘good afternoon.’ They’ll say, ‘thank you. Can I carry your groceries to the car? It’s a game changer for a lot of kids.' Circle C has persisted during a tough time for Nebraska’s rural grocery stores."
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