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Humboldt Community REAPs the Benefit of Webb Farm Solar
Located in rural Humboldt, Tennessee, Mr. Aaron Webb of Webb Farm Solar Systems Inc., owns and operates a minority owned solar farm. This farm has been in operation since 2012, with Photo-Voltaic (PV) Solar Systems on several farm properties.
It was in 2019, when Webb walked… [Read More]
01.11.2023

Increasing Abundance with Native Communities Cooperative Development Training
Cooperatives are designed to meet the common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations of a group. Making sure the group’s values and cultural dynamics are honored is fundamental to successful cooperative development; this makes the co-op model attractive to many… [Read More]
11.30.2022

UW Center for Cooperatives Celebrates 60 Years of Serving the Co-op Community
As National Cooperative Month 2022 ends, we would like to highlight a special anniversary in the co-op world. The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives (UWCC), the oldest university-based cooperative center in the nation, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.… [Read More]
10.27.2022

Homeownership Becomes Reality Through Four Bands Community Fund, Rural Development
When Kim Lawrence of Eagle Butte set out to purchase a home, she knew there was work to be done.
“I had very bad credit and student loans that had gone unpaid,” said Lawrence. “Before I could buy a house, I needed to clean up my credit, and Four Bands helped guide me along the… [Read More]
10.24.2022

New library fuels economic development for rural Orangeburg community
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. But… [Read More]
10.19.2022

Gullah Co-op: Growing Food, Preserving Culture
St. Helena Island, South Carolina, is home to the Black-owned Gullah Farmers’ Cooperative. The co-op is named after the Gullah Geechee, an African American community known for its careful preservation of African cultural heritage in South Carolina and Georgia.
“This project… [Read More]
09.27.2022
There’s No Place Like Home
Sandra was born and raised in the rural town of Greenwood, Mississippi, but wanted more excitement in her life. She moved to Los Angeles in her early 20’s and loved it, but she got terribly homesick for her family every time she called home. In 1999, she followed her heart home… [Read More]
09.26.2022
Singing in the Rain
Doris is a retired nurse who has lived in her home in Greenwood, Mississippi for 42 years. When USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) visited her in late January 2022, her home’s kitchen ceiling beam sagged down so low that she could touch it… [Read More]
09.26.2022
Preserving History in the Delta
The small town of Greenwood in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, once nicknamed the “Cotton Capital of the World,” has seen its share of success, but that was a long time ago. When cotton cultivation and processing became mechanized in the early 20th century, thousands of… [Read More]
09.26.2022
RD, RPG and Delta DB: a Great Team!
Retired schoolteacher and great-grandmother Rutha was due to turn 80 years old the day after she welcomed USDA Rural Development (RD) and the Delta Design Build Workshop (Delta DB) to her recently repaired home in Greenwood, Mississippi in late August 2022.
Last year, Rutha’s… [Read More]
09.26.2022