Tiny Nebraska town gets boost from food co-op | Local Business News
Bennet Goldstein
Omaha World-Herald
When the only grocery store in Lynch shut its doors in March 2020, the closing tacked a question mark onto the community’s fate.
About 200 people live in the town, which is about 100 miles northwest of Norfolk. After the owners of Lynch Hometown Market retired about two years ago, residents had to travel 13 miles to the nearest grocery store.
“I was still able to drive, so I drove … west to Spencer and got my groceries,” said resident David Kalkowski, 72, a retired banker. “I got by, but it wasn’t like having a store uptown from the house.”
On each trip, Kalkowski bought a little more than he needed to stock up. When the weather was poor or snow covered the ground, he’d just as soon skip the week’s grocery run.
Lynch residents feared that the store’s closure would accelerate population loss and compound stresses on low-income people and…
