CAUTION: This article starts with a platitude, and then it hits you with reality. You’ll be glad you read it, because you will find a way to make a difference. Platitude (cliché truism): If you give someone a fish, you will feed them for the day. If you teach someone...

The global pandemic of 2020 has made starting and building a small business in west central Missouri even more difficult. Now a regional effort to develop micro loan financing for rural entrepreneurs is gaining the steam it needs to help local businesses get going and...

Local food farmer Katie Nixon is thankful, during this Covid-19 market upheaval, that she and her husband had put time into setting up an online ordering system. It has become critical for marketing the organic fruit, vegetables, and bedding plants they produce at...

Just a few more people getting off the highway to check out our small towns can make a big difference for rural west central Missouri. Tourism Tool. Here we would like to share news of a project New Growth initiated this year to get more people off the highway and...

Driving 30 minutes for their daughter’s soccer practice used to be stop-and-go traffic stress for Shellie and Jonas Unell. It turned into rolling countryside and gorgeous sunsets when they moved back a few years ago to Shellie’s rural hometown of Appleton City,...

Helping area farms grow their businesses in local and regional food markets is the focus of a three-year, $500,000 USDA Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant just awarded to the West Central Missouri Community Action Agency (West Central) food systems program. The...

Discussion lasted long after the Fifth Monday luncheon ended 1 p.m., Monday September 30, at the Liston Center in El Dorado Springs. Ideas flowed and connections grew after the panel of workforce development program directors addressed the crowd of more than 60...

Join us September 30 for our next 5th Monday community economic development luncheon at the The Liston Center (aka ElDo Youth Center) in El Dorado Springs, MO! Support for job providers and job seekers is the focus of west central Missouri’s next 5th Monday...

Five regional organizations announced April 29, at west central Missouri’s “5th Monday” community economic development luncheon, that they have joined forces to grow the region’s economy by strengthening support to rural entrepreneurs. Start Here is a new, regional,...