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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: 888 Stories
Woman standing under Sugar Nymphs Bistro sign next to parking lot

Bistro Menu and Accessibility Boosted by Rural Business Development Grant

You might not expect to find a fancy bistro when driving through the mountains in northern New Mexico, but that is exactly what you will find in the small mountain town of Peñasco. Sugar Nymphs Bistro shares building space with the town theater and is a place where people come… [Read More]
New Mexico
GrantsLocal FoodsSmall Business
Ryan Tanney, a worship pastor at a church in Pine Grove, California, stands in front of several screens, which are used to manage a live broadcast of Sunday services.

Making connections: bringing California’s rural central Sierra Nevada communities closer with high-speed internet

Mary West-Hutchinson, a real estate broker in West Point, California, was tired of commuting. She’d leave the tall rural pines of her home community and drive 80 minutes to the more densely populated Lodi for work. In addition, she was taking college courses, working toward her… [Read More]
California
BroadbandDisasterHigh Speed Internet
New roof that being installed through Rebuilding Together Thurston County.

USDA Grant Helps Single Mother Rebuild Home and Family's Future

In February 2022, Jessi and her 11-year-old daughter were struggling to maintain their 2006 doublewide manufactured home on an income of less than $20,000 a year.  The home, plagued by years of deferred maintenance and a leaking roof, had severe ceiling damage and… [Read More]
Washington
Home Repair
Two farmers pose with sheep inside a barn with hay on the floor and an open door in the background.

Maine Farm Uses REAP to Help Diversify Farm and Serve a Heritage Industry

Elizabeth Goundie and Josh Emerman are the co-founders of Moorit Hill Farm and Fiber in Troy, Maine. They came to Central Maine by a circuitous route, purchasing the property in 2017. Just seven years later, the young farmers are not only tending more than 70 sheep but also… [Read More]
Maine
Food SupplyKnow Your FarmerLocal FoodsREAPSmall BusinessSolar Energy
Two men stand to the left of an outside restaurant order window

USDA Grant Helps Make Local Fast Food Faster

The small town of Peñasco, New Mexico, doesn’t offer any chain restaurants to stop in for a meal. But what it does offer is a variety of local cuisine. If you are looking for a quick bite to eat on your drive through the mountains, you might try to search for El Ya Merito. It is… [Read More]
New Mexico
Local FoodsSmall Business
Doug Goyings stands in front of the solar array that is cutting energy costs on his family grain farm in NW Ohio.

Ohio Grain Farm Gets Positive “Jolt” From Solar Energy Grant

North of town just beyond the “Welcome to Paulding” sign, Goyings Farms, with its towering array of grain storage bins, is hard to miss. Goyings Farms was established in 1884 and five-generations of the Goyings family has worked this land… [Read More]
Ohio
Joyce Caldwell outside her new home

RN Finds Her Goldilocks Home

At 65, Joyce Caldwell is hitting the reset button. Since closing a USDA Single Family Housing Direct Loan to buy a home in Berlin, NH last February, her outlook on life has turned 180 degrees. “There's nothing like having your own home and your own security,” she says. “It's… [Read More]
New Hampshire
Homeownership 2024

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