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In 2018, food insecurity returned to the pre-recession level of 11.1 percent, last observed in 2007. It is down from 11.8 percent in 2017 and a high of 14.9 percent in 2011. USDA’s Economic Research Service recently released its Household Food Security in the United States in 2018 on the incidence and severity of food insecurity in U.S. households. In 2018, 14.3 million households had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of financial or other resources.

As we celebrate Farm to School Month this October, we can all feel the temperatures cooling down with the fall season. Here are seven ways USDA’s Farm to School Program can make your school and community ‘cooler’ throughout the year!

Happy National Co-Op Month! It’s reason to celebrate because in America there are more than 40,000 cooperatives of all types, supporting jobs that provide more than $25 billion in wages. According to a study by the University of Wisconsin (PDF, 2.7 MB), funded in part by USDA, cooperatives have an estimated 350 million members. (Many people belong to more than one cooperative.)

On October 1, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) celebrated our tenth anniversary. Ten years ago, we replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service when Congress established NIFA through the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-246, enacted June 18, 2008, also known as the 2008 Farm Bill). As USDA’s extramural research funding agency, NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and Extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.

Nestled in a small cutout of the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont is a town named Lincoln. The very epitome of a small town, Lincoln, is home to around 1,200 people, depending on the season. It’s far enough off the highway that during the winter months, there’s limited traffic coming into town.

North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ slogan “Got To Be NC!” is a promotional branding tool allowing consumers to better understand where their food or products are produced.

There are so many beautiful songs and poems written about autumn. And images! Amazing Fall Colors Flickr pictures and Forest Service YouTube videos of trees and flowers aglow with brilliant reds, yellows and oranges among the many iridescent shades of the color spectrum—see what I mean! Fall just brings out the poets in us.

José (Tato) Roig’s farm has been producing coffee since 1978 and has become one of the most successful farms in Puerto Rico’s Coffee Zone. However, Hurricane Maria inflicted severe damage on his crops, as well as those of many other coffee growers.

Strolling down the aisles of most toy departments, parents are likely to see more diverse options such as a brown-faced doll holding her microscope and African-American action figures in engineering sets. Many toy manufacturers have removed the stigma of “traditional gender roles” and created science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) toys with diverse physical features to encourage all children to see themselves in these roles. USDA strives to make these same improvements in the agriculture sector. It’s National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week and we’re celebrating the student support our science agencies provide every day to create a research workforce more reflective of our society.

Oregon farmers and ranchers produce more than 230 types of agriculture products every year. Many of Oregon’s top commodities are seasonal and holiday favorites. The 2017 Census of Agriculture data provide a key for enjoying these quality products in the coming months.