Retired NDAREC Rural Development Director Lori Capouch is being recognized as a national cooperative hero and will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in October.
A North Dakota woman is being inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame.
On Dec. 6, 2024, the Cooperative Development Foundation announced Lori Capouch as a 2025 inductee. The Cooperative Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to cooperatives. She is the first woman from North Dakota to receive the prestigious honor.
“Capouch’s work has proven that in frontier and rural places, where the free market has trouble serving, the cooperative model can be a viable solution. … For all her work supporting cooperatives and families in rural America, we welcome Capouch as a national co-op hero,” the Cooperative Hall of Fame website states.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame,” Capouch says.
Capouch, who retired from the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC) in July, dedicated nearly three decades to rural and frontier co-op development in the state. She directed the NDAREC cooperative development center, connecting North Dakotans with development programs, tools, funds and assistance to enhance the quality of life in rural and frontier communities. She was also instrumental in establishing the Rural Development Finance Corporation’s $9 million revolving loan fund, which has provided 148 community development loans of approximately $13.7 million, created nearly 300 jobs and leveraged more than $145 million in communities of 10,000 or less people.
“Lori spent a career championing issues others did not. She worked in the trenches on rural quality-of-life issues to improve access to food, child care, health and basic services,” says NDAREC General Manager and Executive Vice President Josh Kramer.
Rural groceries, food access, child care and meat processing became her key emphasis areas. She has guided communities through the formation of meat processing and child care cooperatives, and her innovative idea led to the establishment of the first-known rural food access and distribution cooperative in the United States.
The Rural Access Distribution (RAD) Cooperative in Walsh County involves three small-town groceries cooperatively purchasing products to improve variety and get better wholesale prices. Plus, residents in a town without a grocery can now purchase groceries online through the hub store, which are then transported by the cooperative’s delivery truck to climate-controlled grocery lockers in their town.
“The RAD Cooperative model is helping keep small-town groceries viable and proving the cooperative model can change a broken food supply system,” Kramer says.
Many of the rural and frontier models Capouch helped develop are being replicated today across the country, from rural Kansas to the bustling Bronx, N.Y.
“Rural North Dakota – and rural America – is better because of Lori and her application of the cooperative business model to solve the problems we face,” Kramer says. “The contributions she has made to improve the lives of rural people using the cooperative model are nothing short of heroic.”
Capouch will be formally inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame Oct. 9 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Notably, her induction will coincide with the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives, which highlights the lasting global impact of cooperatives and the application of the cooperative model to address global challenges. She will join fellow North Dakotans Everett Dobrinksi, a former Verendrye Electric Cooperative director, and Vern Dosch, retired president and CEO of National Information Solutions Cooperative or NISC, in the national hall of fame.
“Reflecting on my career, I think of the amazing people I’ve had the privilege to work with and the incredible support I’ve received from NDAREC, my family and my friends. This recognition is not just for me, but for everyone who has been part of this journey,” Capouch says. “I am proud to be a part of the rich history of the cooperative movement in our nation.”
