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Yesterday marked the official launch of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) at USDA for the Washington, D.C. metro area. This year, USDA has set a goal of raising just under $2 million from our employees in the national capital area. We have chosen the theme Give: Every Day, Every Way, as it resonates with the range of giving options available to employees. The kickoff was an exciting event featuring more than 20 CFC registered non-profit organizations. Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and I led off the event by speaking movingly about the ways that non-profit organizations touch all of our lives in critical and transformative ways.

Maine USDA Rural Development State Director Virginia Manuel welcomed the Deputy Administrator for Rural Utilities (RUS) Jessica Zufolo to Maine this week for an important tribal consultation meeting with leaders of Maine’s Native American tribes.

An organic breakfast featuring vanilla spiced whole oats, scrambled vegetable tofu, organic milk and local pears, followed by morning yoga in the classroom, a student-led garden tour and a visit to the chicken coop… what a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday morning!  That day, I had the pleasure of attending a special ceremony with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at the Academy of Global Citizenship (AGC) in Chicago where she presented them with USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC) Gold of Distinction Award, the HUSSC’s highest honor.  It was easy to see why they are the first school in Chicago and the entire Midwest to receive such an honor.

National School Lunch Week is underway this week. It’s an annual event, of course, but this year I think we have a lot to celebrate because more and more people are coming to understand how important it is to provide America’s school children with a healthy nutrition environment at school.   In fact, as I look around, I see encouraging developments in many areas, but none more so than the growing number of schools that have decided to take on USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge.

I recently had the pleasure accompanying Deputy Administrator for Special Nutrition Audrey Rowe and Yvette Jackson, Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator on a visit to Duval Elementary-Middle School in Lincoln County, West Virginia.  Known for wide open spaces and a laid back lifestyle, Lincoln County is also becoming known as a healthy place. We were there because Duval was recognized with a HealthierUS School Challenge gold award, the first of its kind in West Virginia.

It was all hands on deck at the 3^rd Annual Faith, Families & Schools Conference held in Cromwell, Connecticut.  I was extremely pleased to see many of my state colleagues working together in such an important effort.  I participated as the keynote speaker and was introduced by George A. Coleman, Deputy Commissioner Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE). Working together for Student Success was the theme throughout conference.  Members of numerous organizations set up exhibits and had the opportunity to listen to our FNS message. 

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio.

It’s hard to imagine average Americans of the 1950s and ‘60s walking around carrying bottles of water or worrying about getting to the gym three times a week.  But just as lifestyles have changed over the decades, so have eating styles.  Today’s Americans demand a variety of fresh, convenient, healthy, quick snacks and meals—and USDA scientists made a major contribution to meeting that demand.

Born in the first half of the 20^th century, rural electric cooperatives drove the monumental effort to bring electricity to remote areas of the country where investor-owned utilities could not make a profit.  Owned by their members and not-for-profit organizations, rural electric cooperatives have been providing safe, reliable and affordable electric power for 75 years.

On October 4, fellow USDA Food and Nutrition Service staffer Julie Mikkelson and I attended the Minnesota Vikings annual Taste of the NFL bash at Minneapolis’ Mall of America. This enormously popular charity event funds feeding efforts operated by Second Harvest Heartland, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization.

Most people do not realize that more than half the water in the United States comes from watersheds managed on forests. Used in homes, on ranches, in industry and for energy production, water resources in forests provide important services to people, as well as habitat for a wide variety of aquatic life. Our rapidly changing climate, however, is challenging our watersheds with both wet and dry extremes - more severe droughts, more frequent and larger floods, more soil moisture stress and lower stream flows during the dry season, less of a snowpack reservoir, and other effects. In a unique pilot project, 11 national forests around the country are assessing the vulnerability of their water resources and watersheds to such changes.