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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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Find Stories

Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 50 Stories
Man standing next to lumber

Montana Lumber Mill Makes Energy Improvements with USDA

Sun Mountain Lumber, located in Deer Lodge, Mont., is a family-owned lumber mill which also serves as Deer Lodge Valley’s largest private employer. Since 2018, Sun Mountain Lumber has received two separate USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America (REAP) program grants to… [Read More]
Montana
BusinessEnergy
Blew Family with Rural Development State Director Jane Asselta and Congressman Malinowski

Family Farm Learns About Sustainable Options through North Jersey RC&D and Rural Development Partnership

The Blew family owns a sustainable farm in Hunterdon County. Oak Grove Plantation is considered a “Revolutionary” farm; all their products are free of GMO, preservatives, additives, and fillers. While they have a great start of going green, they turned to North Jersey RC &D… [Read More]
New Jersey
Energy
Girl leads a cow

Hastings Farm’s Robotic Milking System will Run on Power of the Sun

Five generations strong, Hastings Farm is a multi-generational dairy farm located in Suffield, Connecticut. In addition to corn silage and hay, the family farm milks Holsteins and Jerseys, and processes a variety of dairy products including milk, yogurt, and cheese. They also… [Read More]
Connecticut
Energy
Little Leaf Farms Energy Power

Little Leaf Farms Grows Green while Going Green

Pictured above: Maintenance Manager Steve Case with the input hookups for the chiller outside the greenhouse. The cooling manifolds that are fed by the chiller are just inside the greenhouse. Paul Sellew, a founder of Backyard Farms, had mastered the growing and… [Read More]
Massachusetts
Energy
Solar panels being installed

Home repair loan helps family drastically cut electric bills

Keeping the electric on was crippling the Maggard family. Electric bills ranging from $300-$600 per month ate up the majority of the family’s fixed income. HOMES Inc., one of Rural Development’s strong housing partners in Eastern Kentucky, led a project combining funding… [Read More]
Kentucky
EnergyHome RepairHomeownershipHousingRural DevelopmentSolar Energy
Two women sitting on a pink bench

Distillery is Making a Splash Mixing Community with Commerce

In the midst of the pandemic, while juggling work, civic leadership and homeschooling, friends Shawna Kelsey and Kristina Boyd decided to double down on their plans to launch Pink Bench Distilling in Troy, Montana.  In early 2020, they acquired a 100-year-old building from… [Read More]
Montana
EnergyRenewable Energy

New Solar Array Helps Brewery Keep The Lights On

In rural Ord, Nebraska, Scratchtown Brewing Company, LLC is saving nearly 70 percent in energy costs thanks, in part, to a Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) renewable energy grant awarded in 2019 to purchase a new 24-kilowatt rooftop solar array. These renewable energy… [Read More]
Nebraska
BusinessEnergyInfrastructureRenewable EnergyRural DevelopmentSmall BusinessSolar Energy
Wentworth Family Grocery is a long, low building with yellow siding, large glass doors, and stone trim around the base of the building.

Energy Efficiency Improvements for Northport Grocery Store

High energy usage is a widely recognized concern when operating a grocery store; lighting, compressors, heating, cooling all have a negative impact on the bottom line. John and Rhonda Wentworth, the owner’s of Wentworth Family Grocery in Northport, were determined to increase… [Read More]
Maine
EnergyREAP
Chad Mortensen outside his variety store

Energy Efficiency Improvements Increase Longevity of Small Business

Chad Mortensen is a third-generation owner and operator of Marion’s Variety shop and restaurant in Roosevelt, Utah. Chad’s great aunt Marion Mortensen opened the business in 1933 after emigrating from Denmark. Over a span of 36 years Marion changed locations along the main road… [Read More]
Utah
EnergyREAPRenewable Energy
Thermal image of a home

Energy Efficiency Loan – Vermont Energy Investment Corporation

The Vermont legislature created an Energy Efficiency Utility named Efficiency Vermont as a full-service utility providing those services to all ratepayers.  Under this structure, utility ratepayers can reduce their energy use by investing in energy improvements for their… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
ElectricEnergyRenewable Energy

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