The McCook Stimulus Spending program - otherwise known as COVID Cash - was created by McCook Christian Church in April to provide a $20 bonus for every $100 in certificates purchased.

The program was funded with a $10,000 grant from McCook Community Foundation Fund’s COVID-19 Response Account. When the initial grant money was depleted in less than a week, MCFF quickly provided another $10,000, which extended the purchase of certificates another 2 weeks. 

When all the COVID Cash certificates are redeemed, $120,000 in spending will have taken place - $100,000 to purchase the certificates and $20,000 in bonus funds. While a little more than $12,000 in COVID Cash still needs to be redeemed, more than a $100,000 has already been spent in the community as part of the program.

McCook Christian Church volunteers, including Jody Dellevoet, Jamie Mockry and Dan Miller, have continued to coordinate the program. This includes maintaining spreadsheets to track the certificates as well as issuing checks to the participating retailers where the certificates are spent. 

For those who still have a couple COVID Cash certificates lying around, they can be spent at more than 100 local businesses throughout McCook. A complete list of participating businesses can be found on the COVID Cash Facebook page.

The grant funds were from MCFF’s COVID-19 Response Account, created specifically to address issues related to the pandemic. More than $120,000 in grants have been given through the special account with an additional $37,600 in matching funds from the Nebraska Community Foundation’s Bridging the Education Gap and Bridging the Learning Gap programs. 

McCook Community Foundation Fund is an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation.