Based on a model from Bangladesh, the N.C. Microenterprise Loan Program is launched to encourage the start-up and expansion of very small rural businesses. This program starts the Rural Center’s history of investment directly into rural communities, leading eventually to the formation of CornerSquare Community Capital and management of North Carolina’s State Small Business Credit initiative program. In it’s lifetime, the Rural Center has made more than 3,500 loans with a value of more than $360 million.
The Rural Center funds a study of disparities between urban and rural school financing, which leads to multimillion dollar state investments through Supplemental School Funding for Small and Low Wealth Counties legislation.
The Farmers Market Coupon demonstration project enables low-income mothers and children to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and small farmers to increase their sales. The demonstration later moves to the N.C. Department of Agriculture as a permanent program.
The report “Living Without the Basics” garners the attention of The Wall Street Journal in revealing that almost a quarter of a million North Carolinians live without complete indoor plumbing.