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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in the Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 44 Stories
Photos of cooperative local produce

Buying local made easy - Yellowstone Valley Food Hub

The Yellowstone Valley Food Hub (YVFH) is a cooperative of farmers and ranchers that came together three years ago to increase the community's access to local food. It started as an online ordering platform and quickly grew into an enduring business. Today it provides the… [Read More]
Montana
CooperativesFood SupplyGrantsLocal Foods
Members of the Real Pickle Co-op stand on the roof of the building next to the new solar panels on a sunny day. Many are wearing coats and it looks chilly outside.

Solar: It’s a “Big Dill” for Real Pickles Cooperative

As USDA Rural Development (RD) highlights National Cooperative Month, one worker owned co-op in Massachusetts stands out as a model for sustainability, collaboration, and local food system resiliency. The saying goes “it’s not easy being green.” But for Real Pickles in… [Read More]
Massachusetts
CooperativesEnergyLocal FoodsLocal ProduceREAPRenewable EnergyRural DevelopmentSustainable/Organic Foods
True Chesapeake Oyster Company

USDA Partners with One Small Farm to Make Enormous Impact

Deep beneath the cool waters of the largest estuary in the United States, rests a hidden world teeming with limitless possibilities. Chesapeake Bay is considered a national treasure, with a watershed stretching 64,000 square miles, touching six states, and impacting more than 16… [Read More]
Delaware, Maryland, and District of Columbia (DC)
BusinessFood SupplyGrantsLocal FoodsSustainable/Organic FoodsValue Added
Four smiling men stand together on a dock next to the water. There is a building on the shore in the background.

Preserving Seafood Heritage by Bringing in the Next Generation

McClellanville is a small town in rural South Carolina whose economy relies heavily on commercial fishing and seafood production. Unlike other coastal towns in South Carolina, McClellanville has kept its working waterfront from developing into high-end residential property,… [Read More]
South Carolina
CooperativesLocal FoodsRural Development
People holding bison jerkey

Roam Free Ranch Uses USDA To Expand Markets

Roam Free Ranch (https://goroamfree.com) is a 16,000 acre grass-fed bison ranch in Hot Springs, Montana.  In 2020, Roam Free Ranch utilized a USDA Rural Development Value Added Producer Grant to secure funding to help scale production capacity and expand their markets.… [Read More]
Montana
BusinessLocal FoodsSmall BusinessSustainable/Organic Foods
A baby in a basket sits on a table next to a board game and a wine glass. Behind them, family and friends gather on green grass beneath a blue sky for what appears to be a picnic or some kind of gathering with tables and umbrellas.

RiverCrest Ranch Finds Community, Opportunity in USDA Grant

RiverCrest Ranch has always been a place worth sharing. Nestled in Oregon's Applegate Valley, the ranch's 11 and a half acres still hold the remnants of an 1870s hydraulic gold mining operation and "the best swimming hole on the Applegate River," according to owner Cathy Rodgers… [Read More]
Oregon
BusinessGrantsLocal FoodsRecreationSustainable/Organic FoodsValue Added
Woman in front of cows

From Cow to Cone, Wright's Dairy Farm Sees Delicious Success

For over a hundred years, Wright's Dairy Farm, in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, has been providing the community with fresh dairy products. The five generation farm has been growing and innovating, adding a retail bakery specializing in whipped cream cakes, custard desserts,… [Read More]
Rhode Island
Local Foods
Gullah Farmers Processing Room

New Facility Will Help Small Provide a Means for Small Farmers to Package, Store and Distribute their Produce

Larry Harris and his son, Julian Harris of Harris Farms, LLC often struggled to find a way to package and distribute their fresh produce and increase their sales. Fortunately for them and many other farmers, USDA Rural Development (RD) assisted in finding a solution to this… [Read More]
South Carolina
BusinessLocal FoodsLocal Produce

USDA Grant Boosts Heritage Breed Livestock Producer

Farm thrives, bolsters other local farmers during coronavirus pandemic   For Shelly Oswald, owner of Old Time Farm in Stoneboro, Pa., the novel coronavirus pandemic illustrates the vital role small, local agriculture producers play in safeguarding food security during a… [Read More]
Pennsylvania
Know Your FarmerLocal FoodsMade in Rural America

AYUDA Receives Grant for Commercial Kitchen

The Adults and Youth United in Development Association, Inc. (AYUDA) is a bilingual, grassroots, non-profit corporation founded in 1992 for the purpose of advancing and bettering the quality of life of El Paso County’s low-income individuals and families.  The organization… [Read More]
Texas
Local Foods

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