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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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Find Stories

Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 894 Stories
Quintana and USDA SFH Loan Specialist Victoria Martinez

Go for it, homeownership can work!!

Writing her own homeownership story, Karla Quintana and her two children have lived in Garfield County, CO since 2011.  After having to move out of a garage studio apartment, the family was able to move in with friends and rent the bottom half of their home. While owning a… [Read More]
Colorado
HomeownershipHousing
A hallway at a rural elementary school shows snowpants and boots across from a wall of blue lockers.

Distance Learning Grant Provides Window to the World for Rural Students

Halfway between Park Falls and Ashland is the rural community of Mellen, population 698. Nestled between the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and nearby Copper Falls State Park, this small community is humming with activity on an early Monday morning in March.Students are… [Read More]
Wisconsin
Community CollegesDistance LearningEducationRural DevelopmentRural Partners Network
Healthcare1

Enhancing Rural Medicine

To meet the challenges of a post-pandemic period and to keep pace with the needs of a diverse community, St. Mark's Medical Center (SMMC) looked to USDA's Emergency Rural Health Care Grant program for help. SMMC contributed $4.8 million in uncompensated care and free services… [Read More]
Texas
Community FacilitiesGrants
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… [Read More]
Maine
HomeownershipHousing
Two patients exercise in the telehealth cardio rehab room at Benson Hospital.

Health Care Closer to Home – It’s Good for the Heart

In Arizona, Benson Hospital’s telehealth services cut a 100-mile round trip to metropolitan Tucson, allowing residents to focus on what matters most – their health. Before the pandemic, telehealth was nearly nonexistent in Graham and Cochise County, forcing rural Arizonans in… [Read More]
Arizona
Distance LearningGrantsHealth CareTechnology
A sign in front of an industrial building states Mid-States Material Handling and Fabrication

The Opportunity to Do More: USDA Pass-Through Loan Enables Manufacturing Company Expansion

In Nevada, Iowa, a family-owned and operated business is expanding thanks in part to a $2 million loan from USDA. Mid-States Material Handling and Fabrication is a manufacturer of agricultural material handling equipment, structural steel towers, catwalks, and other steel… [Read More]
Iowa
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentManufacturing
Roof

USDA’s Housing Preservation Grant and Rebuilding Together Houston’s Network of Partners Improve Safety and Resiliency of Crosby Homeowner

For more than 33 years, Ms. Jacqueline Smith has lived in her Crosby home that was built in 1960. As a single mother, she raised three children on her own when her husband left her many years ago. Ms. Smith describes herself as a good listener and an upbeat ‘people person’ who… [Read More]
Texas
Housing
Man and child standing under corn hung to dry

USDA Grants Help Farmer Care for Apple Orchards, Maintain Blue Corn Lineages

After traveling down a long, narrow dirt road in Dixon, New Mexico, I eventually came to the production area for La Mesa Farms. There, more than 5,000 beautiful ears of blue corn were hung up to dry for the winter. They would soon be taken down, and the corn removed from the cob… [Read More]
New Mexico
REAPSmall BusinessValue Added
God's Pantry Food Bank Mobile Pantry Program

Rural health care grant helps God’s Pantry Food Bank expand food delivery program

Food insecurity in rural Kentucky, depending on who you ask, is somewhere around 15 percent. That means about one out of every six households does not have access to affordable nutritious food, putting them at increased risk for conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease,… [Read More]
Kentucky
Food SupplyHealth Care
USDA-RD-REAP-G8-Farms-LLC

Sprucing Up the House, Poultry Houses That Is

G8 Farms, LLC, a woman-owned poultry growing operation in the rural landscape of Angelina County, Texas, is making strides towards a more sustainable and efficient future. With two breeder/layer houses comprising its facility, the farm is dedicated to poultry breeding and egg… [Read More]
Texas
REAP

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