National Cooperative Month

It is an iconic fixture of rural America – the local diner. Not just a restaurant, but a social hub for a community, and when the local café in Sunburst, Montana closed in 2007 it seemed one more nail in the coffin of a small town facing decline.

Born in the first half of the 20 th century, rural electric cooperatives drove the monumental effort to bring electricity to remote areas of the country where investor-owned utilities could not make a profit. Owned by their members and not-for-profit organizations, rural electric cooperatives have...

Cooperatives are born out of community need. They are founded on the ideals of social responsibility and self-help. For that reason, it seems most fitting that the seventh of the cooperative principles is “concern for community.” Members of the National Cooperative Business Association—and...