Skip to main content

Blog

Happy Compromise Farm: Nourishing Their Community, Body and Soul

Happy Compromise Farm + Sanctuary grows nutritious food for their local community distributed through a “free farm stand.” Though surrounded by farms in the rural Southern Tier of New York, the area is a food desert with a 16% poverty rate, a condition that often leads to higher risk for chronic health conditions and limited healthcare.

FAS Highlights Climate-Smart Ag to South American Visitors

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service hosted a delegation of government and private sector representatives from Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay who traveled to the Washington, D.C., area to learn about sustainable, climate-smart agricultural practices being implemented in the United States.

Bridging the Gap in SNAP E&T

The 2023 SNAP E&T State Institute, hosted by the Food and Nutrition Service, brought together 20 state SNAP agencies for a two-day event that aimed to assess and enhance their SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) programs. The theme of the event, "Mind the Gap: Building a Bridge from Vision to Outcomes in Your SNAP E&T Program," emphasized the importance of addressing gaps and challenges in these programs to achieve better outcomes for participants.

International Day of Rural Women Spotlight: Indiana Soccer Moms Score Big as Global Entrepreneurs with USDA Assist

For a women-owned business in rural Indiana, working with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) became a life-changing experience. Soccer moms Carol Podolak and Joy Thompkins sold homemade peanut butter as their kids’ team fundraiser to travel from Portage, Indiana to Dallas, Texas for a tournament in 2016. Customers wanted the pretzel, blueberry, and toffee peanut butter more than once a year, so Podolak and Thompkins started taking custom orders. And now, BNutty is on shelves in stores around the world.

National Hispanic Heritage Month: Employee Spotlights from the Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area

National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15, is a time to celebrate the rich history, traditions and cultural diversity of the Hispanic and Latino/a community. As this recognition month comes to a close, USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area is spotlighting the stories of several brilliant Hispanic colleagues who contribute so much to the Department each and every day.

Urban Agriculture Grant Brings Together Diverse Urban Farms in Boston

Boston’s urban agriculture community is a diverse group of farmers and community advocates, and their needs are as varied as the types of operations they run and the populations they serve. In 2021, the City of Boston’s GrowBoston initiative received a $200,000 Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grant (UAIP) to engage community members to develop priorities and recommendations in key food security neighborhoods and strengthen the city’s urban agriculture policy.

The Kitchen Sink: An Overlooked Place for Food Safety

We use the kitchen sink for food preparation – rinsing produce, cleaning pots and pans, washing utensils that touch raw meat, and more. With these activities come the possibility for foodborne illness-causing bacteria to hang out in the sink too. If proper food preparation safety steps are not followed, these bacteria could cross-contaminate your food and make you sick!

USDA Celebrates First Anniversary of the Historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

One year after the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held on September 28, 2022, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service continues accelerating progress on the conference’s goals to end hunger, improve healthy eating and physical activity, and reduce diet-related diseases and disparities.