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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
A group of Start.Coop's incubation and acceleration cohorts

Start.Coop Launches Market-Ready Start-Ups by Scaling Out

Cooperatives for a Better World, a Manchester, NH, nonprofit known as Start.Coop, knows that there is no easy path to entrepreneurship. Its innovators—using extensive backgrounds in education, housing, agriculture, finance, social justice and other essential sectors that thrive… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
Cooperatives
Fairbanks Museum interactive sensory installments

Mass Timber Takes Off at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium

Since Naturalist Franklin Fairbanks opened the doors of the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1891, it has been a popular place of learning and wonder for thousands of visitors. In 1961, the Museum built the state’s first public planetarium, and in 2018 began a… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
Community Facilities
Richard Berkfield of Food Connects stands in a large, shallow square hollow in a cement floor

Essential Storage Expansion Helps Food Connects Create More Capacity

Food Connects is a Brattleboro, VT-based nonprofit that ‘builds healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities’ by delivering regional food and providing educational and consulting services aimed at transforming the local food system. The organization has grown… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
Food Supply
State Director for Rural Development in Pennsylvania inspects a Hemp Block at Alvernia University.

Hemp Blocks Add Value to Pennsylvanians and the Planet

The Value-Added Producer Grant or VAPG program can help emerging industries take the next steps to becoming viable and expand their markets. Just ask Drew Oberholtzer, the co-founder of Coexist Build, which was the 2021 recipient of a VAPG for hemp blocks. Coexist, located in… [Read More]
Pennsylvania
BiopreferredBusinessGrantsManufacturingSmall Business
Logo for Appletree Rensselaer, Indiana

Appletree Rensselaer: Bringing Smiles to Little Faces in Indiana

USDA Rural Development awarded a Community Facilities Grant worth $133,200 to a childcare center in Rensselaer, Indiana. This grant will fund Appletree Rensselaer, a licensed childcare center providing services to 72 children between six weeks and five years old. The center will… [Read More]
Indiana
Community FacilitiesEducation
Patrick Johnson in front of his USDA Self-Help home

From Renter to Homeowner: Patrick's Path to Homeownership

Patrick Johnson had always envisioned a day when he could own a home, but he felt that it was beyond his reach due to his circumstances as a renter. However, during a conversation with a close friend who resided in a USDA self-help home, Patrick became aware of a program that… [Read More]
Indiana
Housing
A bearded man poses in front of a backdrop that says "GORiLLA LUBE" with industrial products on a table in front of him with orange labels.

Finding New Markets with USDA BioPreferred: Small Town Biobased Company has Outsized Impact on the Slopes and Ziplines of America

Scott and Kathie Lee are the founders of Gorilla Lube, based in Brownville, Maine. Scott Lee found his mission while still in college. At the time he worked for the Connecticut Department of Health inspecting public water supplies and… [Read More]
Maine
BiobasedBiopreferredBroadbandEntrepreneurMade in Rural AmericaManufacturing
Rush Memorial Hospital Mobile Clinic

Rollin' with Health: Rush Memorial Hospital's Mobile Clinic Brings Medical Care to Residents!

Rush Memorial Hospital is at the heart of the close-knit community of Rushville, Indiana. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the hospital faced unprecedented challenges, but they rose to the occasion and worked tirelessly to provide the medical care that their community needed.… [Read More]
Indiana
Health Care
Union City, Indiana, gets upgraded Wastewater Treatment Facility thanks to USDA funding.

From Waste to Wow: Union City's Wastewater Treatment Facility Gets a USDA Boost!

In 2017, Union City, Indiana, started working on a project to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility. A visit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management revealed that the city's treatment facility was not in compliance with several health and sanitation policies… [Read More]
Indiana
Wastewater
Jonesborough K-8 Elementary School Ribbon Cutting

Happy Holidays Jonesborough!

On Friday, December 15, 2023; we made Christmas wishes come true for more than 1,100 K-8 students, faculty, and staff at Jonesborough K-8 Elementary School. The elementary school hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for a brand new 147,000 square foot K-8 school. The Town of… [Read More]
Tennessee
Community Facilities

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