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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: 886 Stories

The Minidoka Spillway

The Minidoka Dam’s history seems almost as long as its 2,237 foot long concrete pier and spillway.  Talk of building the dam in south-central Idaho to help early settlers do more than just scratch out a living goes back to the 1880’s, but finally came to fruition after… [Read More]
Idaho
Community Facilities
The Wright House Apartment

The Wright House At The Right Price

When a mobile home park in Shelburne, Vermont went up for sale, community leaders came together to ensure affordable housing would still exist downtown. After six years of hard work, affordable housing is accessible once again in Shelburne. “Wright House is a little living… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
HomeownershipHousing
Able, Inc

Thrift Store Helps Disabled

Able, Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides services to individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities. To help with the cost of providing those services, the organization operates a thrift store in Dickinson. The store sells donated used goods while providing… [Read More]
North Dakota
Economic Development
Gascoigne Family

Together, a Father and Daughter Make Homeownership a Reality

Father and Daughter, Charles and Heidi Gascoigne purchased a home together with the assistance of USDA Rural Development and their partners.  The Gascoigne’s have worked for two years to make homeownership a reality.  Even though they both have limited incomes and… [Read More]
South Dakota
Homeownership

Triumph by the Bay in Small Town USA by Janice Waddell

Down on California’s central coast, the small town of Los Osos has been on a journey. For the past thirty-three years, they’ve been looking for a sustainable solution to a critical problem: How do we protect the environment we live in while growing our community? Los Osos, a… [Read More]
California
Wastewater
Solar panels and drought-tolerant landscaping at Calistoga Family Apartments, a farm labor housing camp in Calistoga, Calif.

Uniting Farm Worker Families in Calistoga

A good home can bring people together in more ways than one. That’s what happened for the Sibbu family, when they moved into Corporation for Better Housing’s brand new Calistoga Family Apartments. Albert Sibbu worked for the same farm in Napa Valley for 15 years and lived in a… [Read More]
California
Housing

University of Pikeville to Build Kentucky's First Optometry College

“Here we grow again.” City leaders in Pikeville, Ky., are very fond of this expression, and with construction set to begin on another multi-million project in the downtown area, it is apropos for them to begin using it again. Thanks to a $40 million direct loan through USDA’s… [Read More]
Kentucky
Community Facilities
Shrimp boats of coastal southern Louisiana

USDA Agencies Striking to Make a Difference

Rural Development, Farm Service Agency, and Natural Resources and Conservation, USDA agencies in Louisiana, travels across the state to let rural disadvantaged communities know about the StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity Initiative. This initiative is part of a… [Read More]
Louisiana
Economic Development
Dairy Cows at Kalispell Kreamery in Montana

USDA Assists in Keeping the Value-Added in Flathead Dairy Business

Just about everybody in the Flathead Valley knows about Kalispell Kreamery. The creamery, located only 20 feet from the milking barn of their dairy, bottles milk with as little processing, delay and manipulation as possible. The dairy business is well known for producing local,… [Read More]
Montana
Value Added
Sweet Mountain Farm owner and custom hive

USDA Assists Local Honey Producer to Expand Operations and Impact Local Economy

Sweet Mountain Farm, LLC, a honey producer, custom beehive builder, and honeybee breeder on Washington Island, Wis. Washington Island is a 35 square foot island located 7 miles from the northern tip of Wisconsin’s Door County mainland. Since the island is set apart from… [Read More]
Wisconsin
Value Added

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