rural development

History was made in a small rural Kentucky community last week as ground was broken on a new home in Morehead. This project marks the first time that USDA Rural Development and Habitat for Humanity have collaborated to help a formerly homeless single mother take her first steps toward becoming a first-time homeowner.

The South Dakota  Bon Homme School District #04-2 Mission Statement - “To ensure that our students have the resources to succeed in a changing world.”  Hard work is continually being done with the focus placed on learning and commitment of excellence to serve the students who are our future leaders, their parents and the communities.  The District is made up of communities and rural areas of Springfield, Tabor, Tyndall, and the Bon Homme Hutterite Colony.

South Dakota Rural Development State Director Elsie Meeks participated in a dedication ceremony for the Fitness Center project at Bon Homme School District #04-2.  The Fitness Center will be made available to all students and staff with weight, exercise, and cardio vascular equipment.  USDA Rural Development is providing a Community Facilities grant of $33,000 to be leveraged with an applicant contribution through the Hoch Foundation of $247,000 for the project.

As Harrisburg, Penn., temperatures reached 93 degrees on Tuesday and continued to climb throughout the afternoon, it seemed an appropriate time for Secretary Tom Vilsack to announce a new proposed Federal Rule that could help rural homeowners and entrepreneurs save on their utility bills and create jobs in rural areas. The new energy efficiency effort will make federal loans available for rural electric cooperatives to re-lend to electric cooperative customers throughout America who want to make their homes and businesses more energy efficient. The partnership demonstrates a new “pathway to prosperity” according to Secretary Vilsack, and is “a reminder of President Obama’s commitment to stronger rural communities, a stronger rural economy, and strengthening rural values.”

New Mexico is a challenging environment for farmers: the land is dry; soil is hard to come by outside the river valley; temperatures reach the mid-90’s in May and stay there through early October.  But farmers, as they’ve been doing for centuries in New Mexico and all across our country, find ways to overcome challenges and make a living from the land.  In many ways, this makes us New Mexicans appreciate our home State, and its beauty, even more. 

July is a busy month for most…bringing with it Independence Day; declared National Picnic, Ice Cream, Hot Dog, and Blueberry Month; as well as the continuation of the agency’s summer Feds Feed Families Food Drive and the very first Rural Development Cultural Transformation Day.

“When I’m old enough, I’m going to buy you a house,” Sergio Perez told his mom. It was the best gift he could think of for his mother, Leticia. Sergio, his sister Bianca and their mother had been homeless, moving from relative to relative after her divorce.

 Although the three were without a home, they never seemed to be without each other. There is a bond…and a palpable tenderness among the three of them—even with a teenage boy and a pre-teen girl!

When you woke up this morning, chances are you turned on a light, took a shower in your bathroom, brushed your teeth with running water and checked the Internet. For too many people in Indian Country, this simple daily process is currently unattainable. Services most Americans take for granted are not always available in Indian Country.

Last week, I joined other USDA officials in attending the National Congress of American Indians Convention in Lincoln, Nebraska. I discussed all of the remarkable progress that USDA and Secretary Vilsack have made when it comes to supporting Native Americans, especially those who live on reservations or trust areas.

There is something sweet and quaint about the small town of Guadalupe, Arizona.

The 5,000 plus residents are mostly descendants of the original Yaqui Indian/Mexican settlers—many of whom migrated from the south in the early 1920s for construction work on the canals being built within the Salt River Valley.

On a recent visit to North Carolina, USDA Rural Development Utilities Administrator Jonathan Adelstein visited Atlantic Telephone Membership Corporation (ATMC) in Brunswick County, North Carolina.

June is Dairy Month.  In agricultural circles, the term “Value-Added” often implies a business venture through which an agricultural producer, or group of producers, further process a commodity in the value-chain that leads to the ultimate consumer.  But sometimes, the value-added of a value-added venture moves well beyond further processing of a commodity.