Amory business owners receive tornado relief from grants

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – Eight small businesses in Amory were selected to receive $20,000 grants to rebuild from the wreckage left by the March tornadoes.

These businesses were hit hard but a new opportunity for recovery is shedding new light on the city.

“We reached out to several of our partners to see if we could come up with a grant program that would help small businesses recover quickly, while they’re waiting on insurance proceeds and all of those things. And that’s how this all came to be,” said Jeremy Martin, Community Outreach Coordinator with Renaissance.

The Renaissance Community Loan Fund and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas have teamed up to award $160,000 from the Small Business Recovery Grant Program to eight businesses in Amory, Mississippi that sustained damage in March when tornadoes swept through the city.

“It takes so many different organizations all working together in unison to collectively bring the force and all the resources needed to rebuild a town like Amory after these storms came through,” said Martin.

Jody Powell, the President of Jaco Machines, emphasized that the reach of the grants extends beyond the limitations of insurance coverage.

They enable businesses to not only rebuild but also grow and thrive.

“The thing about receiving these grants, it fills in the gaps from insurance. We all know that insurance only covers so much. So receiving these grants are gonna allow us to do the extra things that we need to do to build back our business and to grow our business,” said Powell.

The following businesses will each be awarded a $20,000 grant:

• Jaco Machine
• Southern Crossing Outfitters
• JMF Properties
• The Gold Connection
• Amory Paint & Home Center
• Amory Glass Company
• Alisa’s Kut Above
• American Controls Technology

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