Rural Development

For almost 50 years, ProWorks Inc. has provided valuable day services to Minnesota adults living with disabilities. For the last 30 years, ProWorks has counted the USDA as one of its partners. ProWorks started as a pilot project in 1962 in the basement of an old school building in West Central...

Lee Township is a small community tucked into Michigan’s southwest corner in the rural area between Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lake Michigan. On Tuesday, Aug. 16, the township officially broke ground on a new fire station – though construction work has already begun. The project was made possible...

In what was some of the most beautiful weather Southwest Alaska had seen recently, USDA Administrator Jonathan Adelstein joined the USDA- Rural Development Alaska team to tour several rural communities including Manokotak, New Stuyahok, Kasigluk and Kwigillingok and Pitkas Point. The site tours were...

The line of cars stretched out of the parking lot and onto the street at the Glencoe Co-op Association on a recent warm afternoon in August. With financing from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), the co-op recently installed the first flex fuel pump in McLeod County, and several...

Tucked away in the hillsides of Somerset County, Pennwood Farms is seeing great results from its new methane digester. The 600-cow dairy farm is owned by four brothers who installed the digester in April of this year with the help of a $264,450 USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) loan, a...

In early August, USDA Rural Development Puerto Rico held a stakeholder meeting to discuss Rural Development priorities for President Obama’s 2013 budget and 2012 Farm Bill. The main objective the meeting was to obtain valuable input to develop and improve our mission area priorities for the upcoming...

Dozens of people gathered in Monticello, Ky., on Wednesday to break ground on a project in which five local families began the process of building their own homes. Great partnerships can lead to great projects – and this event highlighted several strategic partners that worked incredibly hard to...

One ag-educator expressed the feelings of many at the first meeting of the USDA Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers when he concluded, “This meeting is a progressive step in the right direction. USDA should be commended for doing this, and should convene this kind of public forum more often.” A...

Today, Secretary Vilsack announced that, during the month of July, USDA employees donated more than 270,000 pounds of canned goods and fresh produce to feed families across the country as part of the Feds Feed Families food drive! That means USDA employees have worked together to donate more than...

On a beautiful summer morning, more than 200 Bridgewater faculty, staff, students and local residents celebrated the completion of a $14 million dollar student housing project on the rural campus of Bridgewater College. The new “Stone Village” as named by the college for its past President, Mr...