USDA Blog

On May 26, I got to go back home to the Rio Grande Valley – the southernmost region in the continental United States – to help promote new sites for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The SFSP provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income neighborhoods get the...

Last Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary Vilsack, and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin unveiled the Department of Agriculture’s newest food icon, MyPlate. A simple visual cue, MyPlate is intended to remind Americans to think about building a healthy plate for every meal. That message...

More than 300 children joined the First Lady’s Office and other administration officials recently for the launch of Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin. The event took place at the Keshena Woodland Bowl, where the children played and exercised outdoors...

A crowd gathered last Sunday in the community of Almont, North Dakota, to celebrate the completion of the new fire and ambulance hall. The weather was perfect for the firefighters to grill burgers and play music for all to enjoy. The ceremony started with Frank Melchoir, Almont Rural Fire District’s...

Last month, USDA Rural Development in Ohio hosted another event in the “Flexible Fuels Roadshow” aimed at broadening awareness of Secretary Vilsack’s objective of deploying 10,000 flexible fuel pumps into the nation’s motor fuel delivery system by 2015. As part of USDA’s Rural Energy for America...

It was quite an active week as I represented the USDA at the 10 th annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. While in Zambia, I had the opportunity to see firsthand a USDA-funded food assistance program in action. This included a Local and Regional Procurement ( LRP) Pilot Project that...