The United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development annually awards loaned funds to create and/or retain rural jobs in Kentucky’s 21 Delta counties.
Among those recently granted Community Ventures’ below-market rates for business expansion include Buttercup Bistro, Main Street Sweets, Double G Property’s LLC, and MDH Funeral and Cremations Services.
Owned by Kathy Gockley, Buttercup Bistro provides delicious and affordable breakfast and lunch options, and Main Street Sweets offers refreshing ice cream treats to locals and visitors in Fulton. She and her husband, Ken, also own Double G Property’s LLC — and are known for aiding and comforting the Fulton community after the devastation of the 2021 tornadoes that struck the area. They have purchased several multi-use properties on Main Street in Fulton, and plan to renovate and lease the top level of these properties as apartments.
Meanwhile, MDH Funeral and Cremations Services is owned and operated by Calloway County native MarTeze Hammonds. As western Kentucky’s second minority-owned funeral home, only one minority-owned funeral home had to serve a 14% minority population of six counties, including Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, and McCracken Counties of Kentucky, as well as Henry County, Tennessee.
At times, this required minority families to work with a funeral home that is not familiar with minority cultural and ceremonial funeral services.
MDH provides unique cultural traditions and services, the use of technology to enhance the memory/legacy, innovative design options for caskets, programs, memory videos, private virtual visitations, and other funeral details to minorities.
While these businesses don’t directly serve the News Edge listening area, businesses located in the Mississippi Delta region — including Caldwell, Christian, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, McLean, Muhlenberg, Todd, Trigg, Union and Webster counties — may apply for loans ranging from $50,000 to $400,000.
Since 2007, previous funding awards from USDA Rural Development have allowed Community Ventures to assist 317 businesses in the Delta region, creating 218 jobs.
To learn more about Community Ventures business expansion loans, visit cvky.org/businesses.