Randolph County, Babour and Tucker counties were awarded the grant and the recipient was the Woodlands Community Lenders, who will use the grant money to fund area small businesses in many useful ways.

USDA Rural Development, which provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas, has been able to assist with more than 1.6 million dollars to Woodlands Community Lenders over the past eight years.

“This grant will help Woodlands Community Lenders provide technical assistance and training to rural microentrepreneurs and microenterprises,” said Kris Warner, State Director of USDA Rural Development in West Virginia. “Projects like this one are what keeps rural communities thriving here in rural West Virginia. I’m pleased to continue a partnership between Woodlands Community Lenders and USDA Rural Development.”

“This grant is going to be extremely helpful to us,” said Dave Clark, executive director of Woodlands Development Group and Woodlands Community Lenders. “Right now, particularly during COVID, it’s been extremely hard on some local businesses.

Kris Warner, state director of USDA Rural Development in West Virginia, makes an announcement Wednesday at the Delmonte that the Woodlands Community Lenders was the recipient of a Rural Microentrepreneur Program Grant.

“But with technical assistance money like this, we can help do things like help develop online sales platforms for local businesses. Or help restaurants so people can order online. Or convert their retail shop to more online sales, which has been really helpful to a lot of businesses.”

The money from the grant is only available to smaller businesses which employ 10 to 15 workers.

“For whatever reason some small businesses simply have no credit,” said Clark. “It could be that they have no credit history or they may be a start-up business. So they can’t walk down to the local bank and get a loan necessarily. That’s where these funds are particularly helpful.

“We can come in and be a little more creative in assessing collateral opportunities. We can do a lot more hand-holding, particularly with the grant funding in developing a business plan and making sure it’s going to be viable for years to come.”