May 2011

A three day visit to Missouri, the “Show Me State” allowed me to join Janie Dunning, Rural Development State Director, to see how rural areas benefiting from infrastructure investments made possible through USDA Rural Development programs and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) financing.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog.

The bay area of California is home to some celebrity chefs but it is the lesser known student chefs at Skyline High School that are making the bulbs flash and the critics swoon.  Well before the official judging team arrived at Skyline High School in Oakland, California, the local entry, Spanish Chickpea Stew, had already passed the toughest test of all -- winning high marks from Skyline students in a cafeteria taste test.

California is home to some of the most fertile farmland in the world and so it produces some the best fruits and vegetables available. It is fitting that the student chefs would go local and include California grown specialties such as spinach, tomatoes and raisins to create this savory and healthy stew.

Earlier this week, Judith Canales, Administrator for Rural Business and Cooperative Programs for USDA Rural Development, stopped by the GM assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to discuss Flex-Fuel opportunities available to American business owners. Canales’ visit was part of a three-state tour in the Midwest, where she and other representatives of USDA Rural Development promoted the installation of flexible fuel pumps and a program that retail fuel outlets may qualify for to help pay for these pumps.

The USDA chose to include Fort Wayne Assembly on its list of stops because the plant makes pickup trucks that have Flex-Fuel engines as options.

This holiday weekend, grills across the country will be fired up, bringing family and friends together to enjoy traditional, finger-licking American barbeque and celebrate the unofficial start of summer.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Historical Charleston, S.C., blends the traditional Southern American, English, French, and West African elements into a celebration of its colorful and rich culture.  Burke Middle & High School in Charleston celebrated this mix of colorful culture with its semi-finalist recipe, Confetti Soup, making a history all its own through nutrition.  The rich wintery soup made with black-eyed pea dots, mixed together with savory smoked ham and dashes of greens, was the center piece at a judging event in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition, held at the school on May 25.

Burke has a record of making history, founded in 1910, it was the first public high school for African-Americans in Charleston. And the school is looking to make history once again as the winner of the Recipes for Healthy Kids competition with its delicious recipe.

Access to quality healthcare in Northeastern Minnesota received a major boost on May 20. That’s when officials broke ground on an expansion project that will add over 80,000 square-feet to Community Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Cloquet, Minn.

During the ceremony, officials also highlighted how the project will create and save jobs in the region during the construction phase and once the expansion is finished.

About 300 local jobs are expected to be created during construction. CMH also employs about 400 people and contributes about $40 million annually to the regional economy.

You might say that Dave Kretschmann has engineered his way into Major League Baseball’s history books. Kretschmann’s work as a research general engineer led him to figure out why so many bats used by Major League Baseball were shattered.

“Since late in the 2008 season, we’ve seen video of every shattered bat in Major League Baseball,” said Kretschmann, who is assigned to the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis., “We’ve tested hundreds of bats and recorded the who, when, and how of every shattered bat in 2009 and 2010. As a result of the implementation of our recommendations and the work of TECO, an independent certification and testing agency for wood products, there’s been a 50 percent reduction in the rate of multiple piece failures since the 2008 season.”

In January, President Obama called upon the U.S. Department of Agriculture and all other U.S. agencies to perform a government-wide review of current federal regulations to update, streamline and remove excessive rules. This review, prompted by Executive Order 13563, was intended to minimize burdens on individuals, businesses and communities attempting to access programs that promote economic growth, improve access to resources, create jobs, and protect the health and safety of the American people.

Since then, USDA has sought public comment on best practices for simplifying and reducing reporting burdens for entry into critical programs, while reducing administrative and operating costs by sharing data across relevant agencies.  These programs range from rural economic development initiatives, to measures governing national forest usage and soil conservation, to emergency producer assistance as a result of natural disasters.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville, N.C., is known for its rich heritage, arts, and fine dining.  Recently, students from Ira B. Jones Elementary School, located in Asheville, shared a taste of another well-known region of fine dining – Tuscany – as the school’s recipe team prepared their semi-finalist recipe of Tuscan Smoked Turkey and Bean Soup for the judges in the First Lady’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition.

The school nutrition and cafeteria staff worked hand-in-hand with the recipe team to cook 350 servings of the Tuscan Smoked Turkey and Bean Soup for lunch as a special menu day in celebration of the judging event and served it alongside a corn muffin, fresh green vegetables and fresh fruit to the students who gave it great reviews. The judges also got a taste of the soup and talked to students about what they thought of the recipe. Delizioso!!

More than 1,300 community developers from 47 states converged on Des Moines, Iowa, this week to attend the 2011 National Main Streets Conference organized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

A key theme repeated during the conference illustrated how communities with healthy Main Street districts are two steps ahead in the race to create and retain jobs.

In small towns all across the country, downtown is typically two or three blocks of businesses run by familiar faces, a place where one knows who is at the local diner by the cars and trucks sitting outside.  Ensuring these districts remain vibrant many times requires a significant investment in buildings, capital and infrastructure, often financed through USDA Rural Development.