Trimont Wind Farm helps save Chocolate Moose Cafe
Trimont, Minn. (December 20, 2005) A volunteer restaurant known for its healthy home cooking was an endangered species in this southwestern Minnesota town – until today.
Great River Energy and PPM Energy, the customer and operator of the landowner-developed Trimont Area Wind Farm, today presented checks totaling $2,000 – the final sum needed for the grass-roots cooperative café to pay for the building and keep the pancakes, pie and rib sandwiches coming.
Trimont’s Chocolate Moose Café, named after the towns Chocolate Festival, has been organized as a non-profit corporation. The board of directors organized a campaign to sell shares and seek donations. “The Moose” was originally staffed with volunteer help. Currently, there are a few paid employees and regularly scheduled volunteers.
The Chocolate Moose idea was born when a Trimont café closed, and the city acquired the property. City officials, seeking to help keep Trimont businesses afloat, allowed the Festival Committee to clean, paint and decorate the building and use it rent free. The purchase of the building for $9,000 is pending.
Throughout the year, construction workers from the nearby Trimont Area Wind Farm have lunched at The Moose. “Of course we want to support The Moose. The food is tasty and cheap too. Nothing on the menu costs more than $5.95,” said Mark Perryman of PPM Energy.
The Trimont Area Wind Farm is also a cooperative effort. It is the nation’s first landowner-developed, commercial-scale wind project. A coalition of 43 landowners in Jackson and Martin counties won the contract to supply electricity through a request for proposals process initiated by a Minnesota cooperative utility, Great River Energy, in 2003. The landowners choose PPM Energy, a unit of Scottish Power (NYSE: SPI), to build and operate the 100-megawatt wind farm. The project began delivering energy to Great River Energy and its 28 member cooperatives in November 2005.
In recent years, Trimont has lost grocery stores, a hardware store and a gift shop. “Across our members’ Minnesota service territory, we try to help small towns retain businesses such as cafes any way we can,” said Mark Rathbun of Great River Energy. “We are always impressed by the grassroots efforts that get the donations, grants and volunteers to keep these important gathering places in business. We know people grieve them when they are gone."
The two-room restaurant has space for local meetings and family celebrations. Local groups and businesses often request catering services. The hometown touches, including seasonal decorations, are done by local residents. Chef Kris Scheff chef and café manager Thomas Hage offer a daily variety of homemade cuisine, focusing on the natural taste of the food. The Moose also holds a first-Sunday-of-the-month French toast brunch. Occasionally, live music is performed by local musicians.
Hage invites everyone to visit The Moose. “We have made The Moose a unique place so people from out of town would come to eat here. The Moose is here to stay!” says Hage.
###
