Blog Archives

By US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to testify before the House Committee on Education and Labor on the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.  Every five years, Congress considers improvements to the Child Nutrition Act, which provides assistance to feed tens of millions of programs through the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, and Summer Food Service Programs.

By Lori Duff, USDA Public Affairs Specialist New Hampshire

The town of Peterborough, New Hampshire has been working diligently to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility for the town’s 6,222 residents since 2000 – when they learned that Environmental Protection Agency requirements for treatment plants were changing. By 2006 the need was critical.

Written by Dawn Knepp, Pennsylvania USDA Public Information Officer

In a small, quaint housing development in south-central Pennsylvania, families are realizing the American dream of homeownership with the help of a unique government program.  USDA Rural Development’s Self-Help Housing Program provides mortgage financing to the homeowner and a technical assistance grant to a non-profit agency, in this case, Interfaith Housing Alliance. Interfaith supervises the homeowners who do much of the building of their own homes. To date, 20 families have completed homes and moved into the 39 lot development.

By Jackie Haven, Director, Nutrition Marketing and Communication Division, USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

The Apps for Healthy Kids submission period has officially come to a close yesterday and there was a flurry of entries submitted the last few days and hours! All submissions will now be reviewed for eligibility and qualified entries will be posted in the www.AppsforHealthyKids.com application gallery by July 14. Some entries are already available on the site to try-out; but with more being posted daily, you’ll want to be sure to keep stopping by to try out the latest game or app.

Written by USDA Public Relations Intern Megan Harrison

In celebration of June as National Homeownership Month, I had the privilege of travelling all over the state of Illinois (from Freeport in northern Illinois to 400 miles south in Carterville, and a few places in between) with Illinois Rural Development staff to watch a “talk show” hosted by our state director, Colleen Callahan.

Written by Ana Placencia, Area Specialist, Uvalde Sub-Area Office;  and Gayle Cargo, Texas USDA Public Information Coordinator

Last month in the south Texas community of Uvalde, Texas State Director Paco Valentin witnessed how USDA Rural Development and the Self Help Housing Program can touch the lives of families in rural Texas.  Family, friends and collaborating Agencies gathered for the ribbon cutting ceremony and tours of three homes that will forever change the lives of these new homeowners.

By John Brewer, Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator

As our group sat near the strawberry fields, in Jutiapa, Honduras, it was hard not to be impressed with the positive outcomes stemming from a USDA grant in 2006. On Tuesday, June 29, I inaugurated the “Biotechnology and Food Security” Conference and later that day I found myself in the strawberry fields—I’ll get to those in a minute.

When it comes to natural disasters and tragedies, most people opt for complete avoidance. But what should you do when it is not a matter of avoidance, but minimizing risk? Most experts will agree that being prepared to adapt to the expected conditions is the best plan:

Yuut Elitnaurviat – People’s Learning Center (YE) is a non-profit vocational training center created by regional leaders to address the unique training and vocational education needs of the primarily Native residents of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Region of southwestern Alaska. YE has been carefully designed and is community driven.

Elizabeth and Doris Jones are a mother and daughter living in Penns Grove, New Jersey.  Elizabeth is 89 and Doris is 70.  They both lived in separate one bedroom apartment units for almost 30 years.   Now, thanks to USDA’s Direct Home Loan Program, they have their own house with a yard.