Cooperatives

It’s Co-op Month!

Every October, National Cooperative Month recognizes the people and principles that make the cooperative business model unique. Electric cooperatives are part of that celebration.

For more than 90 years, North Dakota’s electric cooperatives, guided by people-first principles and a commitment to service over profit, have helped rural communities not only grow, but thrive. By meeting new challenges and seizing opportunities, electric cooperatives and their communities continue to prosper.

Jeff Holzer scrolls through photos on his phone: a quiet country road, a dirt-floor room, colorful pots hanging above an open-fire kitchen and the concrete blocks of partially constructed walls.

“They’re building. They want a new structure, a new house up. They know power’s comin’,” says Holzer, the operations manager at Capital Electric Cooperative.

In November, Holzer will lead a group of 12 volunteers from North Dakota’s electric cooperatives to bring power to the agricultural community of San Luis Palo Grande in north central Guatemala.

Anyone who grew up watching “Tom and Jerry” understands the basics of a cat-and-mouse game. The cat devises a new scheme. The mouse finds a way around it. Then the chase begins again.

As students across the state settle in for another school year, North Dakota voters will decide whether to fund the food that fuels them.

If passed in the November general election, a constitutional measure brought forth by a citizen-led coalition – Together for School Meals – would require state funding for daily school meals. Measure 2 would provide one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day to every student enrolled in public schools and public charter schools. Private and tribal schools may also opt-in for the program.

Growing up on a farm near Casselton, Michael Howe never imagined his family’s dinner conversations would inspire an initiative he would later launch as North Dakota’s secretary of state.

“My parents, I would say, are very civically engaged, and I grew up talking about policy at the kitchen table. My parents never ran for office, but we had the 6 o’clock news on during dinner, and you would hear about the events of the day,” he says.

Now, Howe encourages other North Dakotans to understand the benefits of those types of dinner table conversations.

VELVA, N.D. – A crowd gathered in Velva on July 15 for a public announcement and open house for the future home of the North Central Regional Grocery and Local Food Hub.

This summer, take a road trip through 250 years of history without ever leaving North Dakota.

On July 1, “ND 250 Road Trip: Our American Story” opens in the Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives Governors Gallery at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck. The exhibit traces the state’s history from 1776 to 2026.

From the rolling row crops in the east to the rugged wheatfields of the west, North Dakota’s electric cooperatives have a top priority for everyone in the field: ensuring every farmer returns home safely.

Power lines are necessary to deliver electricity to hardworking farmers and ranchers, but those same power lines can be deadly if not treated with respect. While farmers need to focus on the field and their machinery, your local electric cooperative urges you to also watch for electrical hazards.

North Dakota Living has been named the 2025 George W. Haggard Memorial Journalism Award winner by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). The national award recognizes the top statewide magazine in the electric cooperative network for overall quality and for supporting the national objectives of electric co-ops.

This is North Dakota Living’s 13th Haggard Award and the first for Cally Peterson, who has been editor since 2019.

When you walk into Velva Fresh Foods, it feels like a small-town hug. You’re greeted by smiling staff and good smells – bread baking, meat smoking or whatever homemade lunch owner Brenda McCasson is whipping up that day.

McCasson and her husband, Matt, bought the grocery store in 2019 from former state legislator Shawn Vedaa, who first hired Brenda as a meat cutter in 2016.

“(Shawn) said, ‘Well, you’re basically doing everything anyway. Why don’t you just buy it?’” Brenda recalls.