The California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD) plays an integral role in California. Cooperatives bring needed services to communities and are a source of empowerment for those who are often disempowered. Rural communities often lack the support services of larger communities, and in this aspect, co-ops play a vital role.

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 Greenfield, Massachusetts, the co-op wouldn’t have it any other way; they went green in 2011 with the addition of solar panels on the roof and are still going strong.

For many people across the U.S., local libraries serve as a vessel for community and economic development. But residents in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, went without an updated local library for several years, and the effects were felt throughout the community.

Lindsay is a working mother in McClellanville, South Carolina, and like many people living in rural communities, lacking access to reliable, high-speed internet used to be a challenge that affected her entire family.  

“Especially when the kids came home from school, and I was still working, I would have to be like, ‘nobody get on a tablet, nobody stream videos’… Even the kids had to wait to do their homework on their computers, because if there was one other device besides my computer using the internet, it would bring me down.” 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, home care cooperatives were a beacon of hope for overburdened health care workers and the industry that faced its breaking point. Many workers who wanted a stake in the day-to-day operations turned to the cooperative business model, which allows workers to democratically own and control operations.

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 million people. But for years, the waters have suffered from the overgrowth of algae, which led to a significant loss of fish and wildlife species. Many people thought there would be no way for the Bay to recover.

Community Hospital in McCook, Nebraska recently completed an addition and remodel of their facilities with a $16 million investment from USDA Rural Development (RD) and Thayer County Bank. The work took four years to complete and was finished in August 2022.