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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: 769 Stories
Image of Luther College

Luther Center Helps Local Businesses Go Solar

The Luther College’s Center for Sustainable Communities is working to improve local economies in the Midwest with the help of a Rural Energy for America Program Renewable Energy Systems & Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Grant (REAP). When the two investor-… [Read More]
REAPSmall BusinessSolar Energy
Homegrown Hideaways is a lodging facility that went solar with a REAP grant

REAP Grant Helps Rural Farming Business Go Solar

Homegrown HideAways is more than just a farm. Located in the Appalachians of Berea, Kentucky, the 100-acre holler welcomes more than 2,000 guests per year and has more than a dozen listings on Airbnb. When Jessa Turner and her partner opened the center, they had plans of adding… [Read More]
REAPRenewable EnergySmall Business
Lyndon Sno Cruisers bought a new trailer with USDA RD funding

Trail Groomer Keeps Winter Activities Alive

Snowmobiling is a sport that the local economy in Northern Vermont depends on. Each year, thousands of out-of-staters travel to experience the snowy mountain trails and amazing views. Freshly groomed trails make the snow smooth and are essential for winter sports and activities… [Read More]
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentGrantsRecreation
Jeanne Carver, founder and owner of Shaniko Wool, raising sheep

Helping the Wool Producing Industry One Sheep at a Time

Shaniko Wool Company and its partners have been raising sheep for 128 years. Over the last several years, the company has emerged as a leader in the wool textile industry, becoming the first RWS-certified company in North America in 2018.  “We felt this was an… [Read More]
Economic DevelopmentGrantsMade in Rural AmericaValue Added
Guests use new technology at Agriculture exhibit

Teaching, Learning, and Growing Rural Communities

Agriculture innovation has changed over the years and one organization is using technology to educate and spark interest in the farming community.   “Discovery Park of America is a world class museum and heritage park located in a very rural area of Tennessee,” said… [Read More]
GrantsKnow Your FarmerRural Development
Geoff Marietta solar panels

East Kentucky entrepreneur uses solar power to significantly cut power costs

Geoff Marietta found out just how expensive it can be to heat a 12,000-square-foot, 100-plus-year-old building. The building, located on the corner of 2nd and Main streets in downtown Corbin, Kentucky, sat vacant from 2005 until Marietta bought it in 2017. He immediately… [Read More]
EnergyEntrepreneurREAPRenewable Energy
Max Entertainment Photo

Bringing Family to Orangeburg: RD Helps Family Business Expand

Family is important to Johnny Murdaugh. When raising his own in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he had to travel outside of his community to enjoy fun activities with his children. Frustrated with the lack of access to entertainment centers and amusement parks, he decided to do… [Read More]
African AmericanEntrepreneurRecreationRural Development
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. All… [Read More]
Food SupplyGrantsLocal Produce
Vikki Shoulders with family outside her new home

I was paying for something I knew I would never own

Vikki Shoulders has lived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation her entire life. At 46, she always dreamed of owning her own home, but on the reservation, there weren’t many options. While renting offered many benefits, she knew she was paying for something she would never own… [Read More]
HomeownershipHousingTribal
USDA Rural Development West Virginia State Director Ryan Thorn (left), Hardy County Public Service District General Manager Logan Moyers (center), and USDA Rural Development Area Director Steve Collins take a picture in front of the new Hardy County PSD office building in Moorefield, West Virginia.

“They’re Always There for Us”: USDA Helps with Recovery Efforts

It was June 1, 2018, a severe storm had battered Hardy County in eastern West Virginia causing flooding, mudslides, and landslides. The storms brought heavy rain and caused significant damage to private property and public infrastructure in Hardy County. The Hardy County Public… [Read More]
DisasterWastewaterWater

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