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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 their 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: 32 Stories
Freeze-dried fruit chips in plates on a table laid out for sampling.

Freeze Drying Lessens a Farmer’s Financial Risk Plus More

Rachael Ryan is a life-long farmer from southern New Mexico. Over the years she’s seen the ups and downs of her farming business called Back Yard Farms. --And she especially knows about the downs that come as an ag producer. She loves farming, but she knows farmers are at the… [Read More]
BusinessGrantsValue Added
Staff from Back Yard Farms hold packages of apple chips that were just produced and ready for sale using the freeze-drying method.

What a great idea, how come nobody thought of this before?

The workers at Backyard Farms in Vado, New Mexico have barely begun another day of freeze-drying produce when another truck carrying hundreds of pounds of apples arrives to deliver its load.  Since Backyard Farms began freeze drying food it’s become a beehive of activity.… [Read More]
Value Added
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]
BusinessGrantsLocal FoodsRecreationSustainable/Organic FoodsValue Added
cheese products photo

Making Own Products is a Dream Come True for Small Rural South Dakota Business

In the spring of 2017, Chad Blase quit his full-time job to go back to work with his parents on their dairy farm. Within months, milk prices were sinking and Chad and his partner Laura Klock, along with Chad’s parents, Amy and Gary Blase, realized it was time to have some… [Read More]
Value Added

Vineyard uses Rural Development funding to help grow more than grapes

Rural Development is a driving force working behind the scenes in ways that many across the country do not realize. One way Rural Development helps is by supporting small businesses as they grow. Rural Development also assists single families in securing loans and grants to… [Read More]
Value Added
Port Orford Sustainable Seafood helps local, small-town fishers market and sell their products.

Rural Fishers Tap Local Foods Market

The commercial fishers in the small southern Oregon coastal community of Port Orford were reliant on the corporate model to sell their catch. “The fishermen here are fiercely individualist and there’s all kinds of characters,” said Aaron Longton, captain of the Goldeneye. “But… [Read More]
Value Added

Claybrook Farms Providing Beef and Jobs

Even though Claybrook Farms had a long standing reputation for its excellent Black Angus cattle breeding operation, the new owner wanted to broaden the farm’s horizon. The Turner family purchased the 700 acre Claybrook Farms in 1975 growing it to over 1,000 acres and adding the… [Read More]
Know Your FarmerLocal FoodsLocal ProduceSustainable/Organic FoodsValue Added

Family Business Grows into Success

Little did PJ Jonas know when she began making goat milk soap in 2006 that her project would develop into a career that she, husband Jim, and their eight children would soon share. Because of her desire to not use chemicals on the children’s skin, PJ wanted a natural soap that… [Read More]
Value Added
Dairy Cows at Kalispell Kreamery in Montana

USDA Assists in Keeping the Value-Added in Flathead Dairy Business

Just about everybody in the Flathead Valley knows about Kalispell Kreamery. The creamery, located only 20 feet from the milking barn of their dairy, bottles milk with as little processing, delay and manipulation as possible. The dairy business is well known for producing local,… [Read More]
Value Added
Sweet Mountain Farm owner and custom hive

USDA Assists Local Honey Producer to Expand Operations and Impact Local Economy

Sweet Mountain Farm, LLC, a honey producer, custom beehive builder, and honeybee breeder on Washington Island, Wis. Washington Island is a 35 square foot island located 7 miles from the northern tip of Wisconsin’s Door County mainland. Since the island is set apart from… [Read More]
Value Added

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