March 19th, 2020
MANKATO, MINN. – Greater Mankato Growth, Inc. (GMG) is committed to our mission of serving businesses and the needs of our community during this challenging time. GMG has been working over the course of the last several days to navigate the challenging and continually evolving COVID-19 situation and to do our best to support our members, businesses and the community in putting forth valuable and timely information.
We have created a web page full of available resources specific to our business community at: https://greatermankato.com/covid19 centered around business resources, community resources, supporting local business and public health information. Our organization continues to be in communication with local partners to ensure we are supporting area coordination efforts as well as ongoing messaging. Please check back often and share this page with others, as ongoing informational updates are being made. We are also utilizing a number of communication platforms to support the business community.
We encourage the public to subscribe or regularly check our blog at greatermankatoblog.com for updates on the status of state/federal/local business support programs that are rapidly evolving. Blogs are being posted almost daily on legislative updates regarding topics such as unemployment insurance, SBA Disaster Loans and new paid leave programs passed by Congress.
Per Governor Walz’s announcement, many of our members in the restaurant/hospitality and recreational industries had to close or modify business practices on March 17. Our team has created a Facebook group called “Greater Mankato Area Take Out, Delivery & Business Options” to support local business and allow them to share, post and comment with any updates concerning COVID-19 impacts to their hours of operation, closures and alternative purchasing options they are now providing (such as take out, delivery, gift cards, etc.) That page can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/katosupportlocal/. A full list of our businesses can also be found on our business directory web page. Members are encouraged to utilize this as another mechanism to update their business information on as well as provide links to website and social media platforms specific to their business.
Additionally, we will continue to actively reach out to our member businesses and organizations by phone and email to best assess how we can be helpful and answer questions related to available resources and information. Part of this includes completing the following survey to assist Greater Mankato Growth in identifying resources to address issues arising from businesses related to COVID-19 at; https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5502344/Covid-19-and-Greater-Mankato. Please consider sharing this survey via your social media to assist Greater Mankato Growth in gathering information for other local and state resource providers.
The GMG office is open, although we have closed our office lobby to the public and a great deal of our work is being done remotely for the health and safety of all. We are happy to assist members and stakeholders via a scheduled appointment, phone conversation or remote meeting. Feel free to reach out to our team by contacting us at 507.385.6640 or via e-mail at info@greatermankato.com.
About Greater Mankato Growth, Inc.
Greater Mankato Growth, Inc. (GMG) is comprised of four business units; Greater Mankato Growth, the regional chamber of commerce and economic development organization serving the regional marketplace; Visit Mankato, the local convention and visitor’s bureau; City Center Partnership, a downtown development organization; and GreenSeam, which utilizes agriculture to build on the region’s extensive agribusiness assets to develop the ag economy.