May 2011

In an announcement released this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack established the first Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) Project Area to promote the next generation of biofuels.

The announcement comes as Americans are pinching pennies due to gas prices climbing to over $4 a gallon. “Reducing our dependence on foreign oil and getting a handle on out of control gas prices will require investments in projects like we are announcing today,” said Vilsack.

Last week, Secretary Vilsack stopped by Bread for the City and joined National and Community Service CEO Patrick Corvington and Bread for the City President George Jones to underscore the administration’s commitments to ending hunger in America.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to join 5 chefs from across the country, all of us being recognized as a Champion of Change. Working together as a team the six of us joined in a discussion with Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and Chef Sam Kass to discuss opportunities and challenges of the Chefs Move to Schools, a program of the Let's Move! initiative.

The true spirit of Chefs Move to Schools (CMTS) is to engage children in their classroom through food. The program has morphed into a fun and educational program benefitting both school children and school nutrition professionals. One practice that is becoming popular is to have the program benefit both these groups; first by getting kids excited by a chef demo then having the chef step into the school kitchen, not to comment about the food, rather to work hands on with the kitchen staff to help re-educate them on basic kitchen skills. This quick educational lesson is often welcomed by the staff who see it as an opportunity to network with a local chef. Engaging organizations is important to seeing through with the success of CMTS. The American Culinary Federation, School Nutrition Association and Share Our Strength are the top three organizations involved to see through with the success of CMTS.

Vegetables aren’t the only thing you’ll see growing at the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) People’s Garden in Delaware – partnerships are growing too. To commemorate Earth Day, students from Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) at Delaware State University (DSU), and a representative from the Partnership for Delaware Estuary joined NRCS employees in a clean-up and planting day aimed at restoring this NRCS People’s Garden for the upcoming 2011 growing season.

USDA Rural Development State Director, Vernita F. Dore announced an award of more than $3.1 million to the Town of Iva for sewer improvements as part of an Earth Day celebration in Iva, South Carolina.  After the ceremony, Ms. Dore, Town of Iva Mayor Bobby Gentry and members of the Crescent High School Future Farmers of America commemorated Earth Day by planting a Japanese red maple tree outside the Iva Civic Center.

Earth Day is observed annually on April 22nd to raise awareness about the role each person can play to protect vital natural resources and safeguard the environment. Since the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, the event has expanded to include participation by citizens and governments in more than 195 countries.

As part of a flourishing partnership, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) recently hosted students from Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC) in Washington, D.C., for what proved to be an action-packed shadowing day at USDA Headquarters.

From this local high school to the most remote rural areas, AMS is answering Secretary Tom Vilsack’s call to develop a diverse workforce by teaching students about careers in agriculture.

Catholic Charities in Chicago is just one of many organizations that has committed to serving thousands of kids nutritious meals this summer through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Recently, FNS staff visited Catholic Charities headquarters in Chicago and met with Angel Gutierrez.

Mr. Gutierrez, Vice-President of Community Development and Outreach Services, shared a bit about their program operations and why they are committed to expanding to serve more hungry kids in the Chicago area. Watch this video clip to learn about how they have used the program to feed children and create jobs in the process.  Catholic Charities is one of many organizations working with Let’s Move! Faith and Communities to expand the number of SFSP sites this summer. Not to spoil the video, but in the summer of 2010 alone, they were able to serve 12,040 different children. Quite a summer!

With one out of every four Latino families struggling to put food on the table, congregations and community-based organizations need all the help they can get in meeting this challenge. That is why USDA hosted Hispanic pastors in cities across the country for webinar watch events on the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) partnered with USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the Food and Nutrition Service to hold viewings in California, Florida, Arizona, Texas, and Washington, DC. The webinars are one of many ways USDA is engaging faith-based, Hispanic-serving organizations to participate in USDA’s nutrition assistance programs. Feeding kids through the Summer Food Service Program is particularly important: 21 million children receive free or reduced school lunches during the year, but only 3.4 million kids are fed meals over the summer through USDA summer feeding programs.

Energy savings was the theme for the Earth Day event held with Garfield County in Burwell, Nebraska in April.  Rural residents gathered at the Garfield County Library with USDA Rural Development Nebraska State Director Maxine Moul and staff.  Garfield County was presented with a plaque from Rural Development for securing the funding needed to acquire a more efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) unit for the Library that serves more than 1,900 rural residents.

USDA Rural Development provided funding that was leveraged with funds from Garfield County and the Friends of the Garfield County Library to replace the old heating and cooling units with a more efficient HVAC system consisting of three new 13 air conditioners and heat pumps with backup heaters.  The improvements will help the overall budget of the Library through the energy savings.

Attendees at the recent “Building a Sustainable Renewable Energy Program for the 21^st Century” conference in Denver, Colorado, participated in discussions about how renewable energy opportunities could create new jobs and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Among those in attendance was USDA Rural Development Business Programs Administrator Judy Canales.

The event began with a luncheon presentation from Greg Krissek, ICM, Director of Government Affairs and Jim Imbler, ZeaChem, Chief Executive Officer.  Krissek’s presentation to the group focused on the ethanol and biofuels industry.  Krissek has been in the business for 11 years and currently oversees 102 plants with 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol production per year.    He noted that America needs to take what we have learned from first generation biofuels and build on it through adding cellulosic changes to the process.  Imbler focused his discussion on new technology in biorefinery development and in particular a cellulose-based biorefinery platform that could be capable of producing advanced ethanol, fuels and chemicals.  The company is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado.  They currently operate a research and development laboratory facility in Menlo Park, California and have a 250,000 gallon per year cellulosic biorefinery under construction in Boardman, Oregon.