Deputy Secretary Merrigan far left shares a humors moment with , Local Food Hub Director Marisa Vrooman, USDA Rural Development State Director Ellen Davis, Local Food Hub Director Kate Collier and Local Food Hub staffer, Alan Moore.

“The Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) are myth-busters, plain and simple,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at a recent funding announcement held at JABA’s main office and Adult Daycare Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Read more »

Under Secretary Kevin Concannon speaks to hunger advocates at the listening session in New Orleans on September 30.

Big things are going on in the Southwest region of the U.S. when it comes to feeding families.  USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service partnered with the No Kid Hungry Campaign lead by Share Our Strength and Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. Earlier this month, we met to discuss strategies to help this campaign meet its goal of increasing participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Summer Meals in Arkansas.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of work to be done as we are seeing more and more people struggling to put food on the table but through our partnerships we hope to make a difference one community at a time. Read more »

On October 16 and 17, the USDA Food Safety Discovery Zone was able to reach Arkansas consumers at two excellent venues. The first was the Arkansas State Fair, a crowded and busy bacteria haven, and the second was a local Kroger grocery store where consumers were buying the food they should be keeping safe. The Discovery Zone was such a hit that it even made the Little Rock evening news! Sharing their food safety information with families, kids, and some misguided shoppers, the Discovery Zone staff agreed this road trip was well worth the drive. Read more »

The 1500-pound glacial ice coming to the October 23-24 Science Fair came from a calved piece of the Mendenhall Glacier, like these seen floating in Mendenhall Lake on the Juneau Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. (US Forest Service photo by Phil Sammon)

It started as a three-quarter ton chunk of ice taken out of Mendenhall Lake on the Tongass National Forest in Juneau, Alaska. Read more »

"Don Phillips, NASS interviewer, uses iPad for data collection for the September Agricultural Survey."

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.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), will take a technological leap forward in 2011 by using Apple’s new iPad as the data entry device to collect survey responses. This is an exciting step forward from the old pencil to paper method, still in use today. The iPad, coupled with NASS’s unique approach to computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), will revolutionize the NASS survey process and will open the door for future innovative opportunities. Read more »