rural development

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited the Utah Food Bank in Salt Lake City today, where she took a tour of the facility and helped assemble meal packets with USDA foods.  Merrigan highlighted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the ARRA funding that Utah Food Bank received in 2009 and 2010.

With much of Mississippi located in rural areas and many of those rural areas lacking broadband access, it should be no surprise when USDA Rural Development’s Mississippi team chose to take extra initiative to make sure that Mississippi’s rural cities and counties take full advantage of the opportunities presented under the Recovery Act’s broadband funding.

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack today announced that USDA will donate more than $145 million in international assistance under the Food for Progress Program in fiscal year 2010. This figure will benefit more than 3.4 million people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East by providing access to new opportunities for farmers and rural communities.

On Tuesday, February 23, 2010, USDA hosted a National Roundtable on Ongoing Opportunities for Latinos in Natural Resources at USDA in Washington, D.C.

A warm winter day greeted USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan as she visited the high desert community of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico.

Chandler Sanchez the Governor of Acoma Pueblo gave the Deputy Secretary a personal tour of the new $12-million dollar community center which is currently under construction.

Donning a hard hat Deputy Secretary Merrigan saw firsthand the progress of the construction.  The facility is scheduled to be completed later this summer.

USDA Rural Development and the Farm Services Agency sponsored the Rural New York Economic Development Forum earlier this month in Virgil, N.Y. we had an audience of about  60 business, government and economic development leaders.

Over 100 people gathered in St.

New Mexico State Director Terry Brunner welcomed USDA Rural Development Administrator of Business and Cooperative Programs Judy Canales to Albuquerque earlier this month to kick off a two day training session for Rural Development staff and lenders from across the state. </sp

We wrapped up the final of four USDA-led jobs forums Monday in Anchorage.  As in Fairbanks, Kotzebue and Juneau, area leaders joined with Alaskans from all walks to life to provide input on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to job creation and retention, especially in rural Alaska.

Bend, Oregon – Panels of economic experts, elected officials, community leaders and state agencies once again presented information in conjunction with Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Rural Development (RD) for a jointly hosted USDA Forum on Jobs & Economic Growth on January 28.