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  31. <title>Rural Talent Lab Wants Rural Schools at the Table, Not Just on the Agenda</title>
  32. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-talent-lab-wants-rural-schools-at-the-table-not-just-on-the-agenda/2025/05/08/</link>
  33. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-talent-lab-wants-rural-schools-at-the-table-not-just-on-the-agenda/2025/05/08/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lane Wendell Fischer]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[Yonder Report]]></category>
  39. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229600</guid>
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  41. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="682" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C506&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C863&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C511&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1023&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1364&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C799&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1332&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C519&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C266&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C470&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  42. <p>For many rural students, the road to any college — whether it be out-of-state, in-state, or regional — may not feel like a road at all. It may feel like a winding, overgrown path filled with advisors, unfamiliar processes, and support systems that were never built with small towns in mind.&#160; In five states across [&#8230;]</p>
  43. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-talent-lab-wants-rural-schools-at-the-table-not-just-on-the-agenda/2025/05/08/">Rural Talent Lab Wants Rural Schools at the Table, Not Just on the Agenda</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  44. ]]></description>
  45. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="682" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C506&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C863&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C511&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1023&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1364&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C799&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1332&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C519&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C266&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C470&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP110907048737-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>For many rural students, the road to any college — whether it be out-of-state, in-state, or regional — may not feel like a road at all. It may feel like a winding, overgrown path filled with advisors, unfamiliar processes, and support systems that were never built with small towns in mind.&nbsp;</p><p>In five states across the country, a team of researchers and educators is preparing to hit the road to help build better higher education pathways for rural students. But they’re not just plotting routes on a map, they’re planning something deeper: how to show up in small communities with respect, listen without assumptions, and stay long enough to have a real conversation.</p><p>Andrew Koricich is the executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, a research and resource hub focused on highlighting the important role of regional colleges in economic and community development.</p><p>Koricich is leading this new approach to build paths to higher education by establishing the Rural Talent Lab. The lab, composed of higher education researchers and educators, will partner with state education agencies to increase student access and enrollment in regional colleges. Here, students can acquire training and skills to find good paying work and support local workforce needs, from welding to nursing to culinary arts.</p><p>Over the next four years, his team of researchers and state leaders will hop on a charter bus to visit the rural communities they will be working with. Koricich has one goal in mind for these trips: to listen.</p><p>“We’ve got to stop treating rural communities like pit stops,” Koricich said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “If we’re going to do work with rural places — not just on them — that starts with how we show up.”</p><p>He’s also checking for neckties.</p><p>“When we go on these community tours, I better not see one person in a suit and tie,” Koricich said. “That might feel weird, but it matters. Don’t dress like a bum — that’s insulting — but don’t overdress either. We’re just people, sitting around having a conversation.”</p><p>The goals of the project are to help state education agencies form stronger, longer-lasting partnerships with rural schools and communities, Koricich said.</p><p>Once that relationship is established, the Talent Lab will work with their state partners to develop statewide plans built by data-driven research, but most importantly, built by the needs and desires of the rural communities themselves.&nbsp;</p><p>What makes this project different isn’t just the scope of the work — it’s how that work gets done. “This can’t be extractive,” Koricich said. “We’re not coming to take. We’re coming to listen, to invest, to stay for breakfast the next morning — and to come back again.”</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Way You Show Up Matters</strong></h3><p>That shift in tone and posture runs through every piece of the project. Instead of arriving with a pre-baked plan, the national team is working to support what rural communities already know: what’s needed, what’s possible, and what will actually stick.</p><p>Each state will take its own approach, guided by local priorities. The national team will offer research and coordination, but not direction. And crucially, they’re focused on building trust, not just completing a checklist.</p><p>That includes making sure local dollars stay local. The teams will eat at community restaurants, sleep in local hotels, and spend their time in town — not just swoop in for a meeting and head back to the city.</p><p>Ty McNamee, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Mississippi and research fellow for the project, says that mindfulness is essential — especially in places where outside help has too often come with a side of condescension.</p><p>“Rural communities aren’t broken,” McNamee said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “Rural students aren’t an ‘at-risk population.’ That language makes it sound like something’s wrong with them — and there’s not. They’re brilliant. They’re capable. They deserve systems that believe in them.”</p><p>McNamee, who grew up in rural Wyoming, knows what it means when institutions fail to meet rural students where they are. He hopes this work flips the script by not just improving opportunities, but rebuilding trust in the process and trust in higher education.&nbsp;</p><p>“We’re not showing up to fix people,” he says. “We’re showing up to learn from them.”</p><p>That means making space for local ideas and trusting local relationships. And, as Koricich puts it, “getting comfortable being uncomfortable.”</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>After the Tour Bus Leaves</strong></h3><p>In many ways, the Rural Talent Lab team is built to be temporary. Their role is to help remove the barriers that have, for so long, prevented long-term partnerships between rural communities, regional colleges, and state education leaders.</p><p>The project is set to run for four years. Koricich says the goal is to leave something more lasting behind.</p><p>“We hope that by the end, the state teams have built durable relationships with the communities they’ve visited,” he said. “They should be able to go back to those folks later and say, ‘We tried 43 things, one of them didn’t work — let’s try again.’”</p><p>That kind of long-term relationship-building takes more than strategy. It takes trust. And that trust is built, Koricich says, not just by the content of the work — but by the method.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-talent-lab-wants-rural-schools-at-the-table-not-just-on-the-agenda/2025/05/08/">Rural Talent Lab Wants Rural Schools at the Table, Not Just on the Agenda</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  46. ]]></content:encoded>
  48. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-talent-lab-wants-rural-schools-at-the-table-not-just-on-the-agenda/2025/05/08/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  49. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  52. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229600</post-id> </item>
  53. <item>
  54. <title>Why Did the Chicks Say Goodbye to Earl?</title>
  55. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/why-did-the-chicks-say-goodbye-to-earl/2025/05/08/</link>
  56. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/why-did-the-chicks-say-goodbye-to-earl/2025/05/08/#respond</comments>
  58. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Anya Petrone Slepyan]]></dc:creator>
  59. <pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  60. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  61. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  62. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229661</guid>
  63.  
  64. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="569" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=760%2C422&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1296%2C720&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C427&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1536%2C853&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1200%2C667&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=780%2C433&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=400%2C222&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=706%2C392&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  65. <p>The third episode of 'Twang' looks into the women at the heart of country music and how they fit into a musical ecosystem currently dominated by ultramasculine 'bro-country.'</p>
  66. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/why-did-the-chicks-say-goodbye-to-earl/2025/05/08/">Why Did the Chicks Say Goodbye to Earl?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  67. ]]></description>
  68. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="569" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=760%2C422&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1296%2C720&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C427&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1536%2C853&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1200%2C667&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=780%2C433&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=400%2C222&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=706%2C392&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/4h6r86iPn7hMsVoimtmJzh?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe><p>I remember the first time I heard the song ‘Fancy,’ written by Bobbie Gentry and recorded by Reba McEntire. I was at a drag brunch fundraiser supporting a <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/university-of-kentuckys-ag-school-first-in-the-region-to-offer-scholarships-for-lgbtq-students/2022/07/12/">scholarship for LGBTQ students at the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture</a>, the first scholarship of its kind in the region.&nbsp;</p><p>The theme of the brunch was ‘Drag me to the Farm,’ and featured country hits from female singers like Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, Loretta Lynn, and of course, Reba. When the opening notes of ‘Fancy’ came on, the audience (which was admittedly several mimosas in by this point) started cheering and didn’t stop. I didn’t get why at first, but the hype made plenty of sense by the end of the first chorus: Fancy had not let me down.</p><p>I hadn’t grown up listening to country music. Of course I’d at least heard many of the biggest hits on country radio – even the cultural rock I lived under wasn’t big enough to keep songs like the infectiously catchy country anthem ‘Chicken Fried’ from my consciousness. But I can’t say I was a country fan until I was reintroduced to the genre by a troupe of drag queens over plates of biscuits and chicken. The food was delicious and the lip-syncing performances were entertaining as all get out. But the music – which ranged from wry, raucous ditties to heartfelt ballads – was the center of the experience.&nbsp;</p><p>Since then, I’ve taken more of a personal, and professional, interest in country. And while I love the music, I’ve become equally fascinated by the history, politics, and cultural complexities of the genre.&nbsp;</p><p>Country music has a well-earned reputation for being conservative. But it’s also been an avenue for Loretta Lynn to sing about topics like birth control and divorce in the 1970s, and for younger artists like the Chicks, Gretchen Peters, and Martina McBride to take on difficult subjects like domestic violence.&nbsp;</p><iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/2cQZhODbfHoq7EKPcK6HU7?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe><p>How does this music coexist in a genre with songs like ‘Country Girl (Shake it For Me)’? What tensions exist between the men and women who make country music, and between the men and women who listen to it? How are contemporary artists carrying on the tradition of the outspoken women who helped build the genre?</p><p>We explore these questions and more in the latest episode of <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/podcasts/rural-remix/twang/">‘Twang.’</a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/4h6r86iPn7hMsVoimtmJzh?si=84be7d56d5a64a91">Episode three</a> is out now, along with a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2cQZhODbfHoq7EKPcK6HU7?si=92b8e51be23f42dd">companion playlist</a> compiled by our host, Lane Wendell Fischer. As always, we hope you’ll listen – not just to the music, but to the lives behind that trademark twang.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/why-did-the-chicks-say-goodbye-to-earl/2025/05/08/">Why Did the Chicks Say Goodbye to Earl?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  69. ]]></content:encoded>
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  72. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  75. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229661</post-id> </item>
  76. <item>
  77. <title>Climate Disasters Inflict Outsized Harm on Pregnant and Young Families</title>
  78. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/climate-disasters-inflict-outsized-harm-on-pregnant-and-young-families/2025/05/07/</link>
  79. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/climate-disasters-inflict-outsized-harm-on-pregnant-and-young-families/2025/05/07/#respond</comments>
  81. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Sarah Melotte and Katie Worth / Climate Central]]></dc:creator>
  82. <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  83. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  84. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  85. <category><![CDATA[Yonder Report]]></category>
  86. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229609</guid>
  87.  
  88. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  89. <p>This story was produced through a collaboration between Daily Yonder and Climate Central. Climate Central scientist Daniel Gilford contributed data reporting. The howling winds of a tornado jolted Jelessica Monard awake in the early morning hours last fall. She was five months pregnant with her first child when Hurricane Helene struck her rural Georgian town [&#8230;]</p>
  90. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/climate-disasters-inflict-outsized-harm-on-pregnant-and-young-families/2025/05/07/">Climate Disasters Inflict Outsized Harm on Pregnant and Young Families</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  91. ]]></description>
  92. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP-Hurricane-Helene-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p class="has-text-align-center"><em>This story was produced through a collaboration between Daily Yonder and <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/">Climate Central</a>. Climate Central scientist Daniel Gilford contributed data reporting.</em></p><p>The howling winds of a tornado jolted Jelessica Monard awake in the early morning hours last fall. She was five months pregnant with her first child when Hurricane Helene struck her rural Georgian town of Swainsboro. Along with devastating flooding and mudslides, the storm had been spinning up tornadoes throughout the Southeast that morning and knocked out power in her neighborhood.</p><p>“I opened up the door and I couldn’t see my hand,” Monard said. “You hear things breaking outside or lifting up and banging into something else.”</p><p>After the storm passed, the power remained out and no one had cell reception. Food spoiled within a few days without refrigeration.</p><p>“I had a food stamp card and had loaded up the house,” Monard said. “I had to throw a lot of that stuff out.”</p><p>Pregnant women and their unborn children face some of the sharpest health risks as atmospheric pollution raises temperatures, fueling more destructive storms, floods, wildfires and other climate disasters. Lower-income families are particularly vulnerable – as are rural communities, which can lack sufficient access to healthcare even in the best of times.&nbsp;</p><p>Not having food available exacerbated Monard’s pregnancy-induced nausea. And without a phone, she couldn’t call for help.&nbsp;</p><p>“I was hungry, I was pregnant,” Monard said. “And then if I wasn’t eating enough, I would throw up.”</p><p>To add to her stress, Monard’s pregnancy was considered high risk because she’d suffered a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in her lung. To monitor the condition, Monard had to travel twice a week from her home in Swainsboro to a medical center in Savannah throughout her pregnancy, about a two hour round trip.</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-229615" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-scaled.jpeg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Jelessica-Monard-1-972x1296.jpeg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Jelessica Monard was five months pregnant when Hurricane Helene struck her town of Swainsboro, Georgia. (Photo by Sarah Melotte)</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>“Things started getting hard with the bills and keeping gas in the car,” Monard said. “It was just a whole trickle down spiral.”&nbsp;</p><p>Pregnant people and parents of infants across the American Southeast experienced domino effects like these after Helene cut its ruinous path, destroying homes and businesses, laying waste to infrastructure, knocking out power to millions of homes and killing more than 200 people.&nbsp;</p><p>Maternal care providers in storm-damaged communities in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia said they’ve seen an uptick in postpartum depression among their patients. Though anecdotal, these observations are consistent with an emerging body of research indicating that surviving a severe flood catastrophe heightens the risk and severity of maternal mental health struggles, which in turn can impact the health and development of infants.</p><p>Helene crossed into Georgia from its southern border as a Category 2 hurricane. Before making landfall near Perry, Florida, it had intensified to a Category 4 storm under the influence of warm Gulf waters. A <a href="https://csi.climatecentral.org/ocean?lat=21.04349&amp;lng=-76.90430&amp;zoom=5&amp;firstDate=2024-09-27&amp;tcState=21&amp;chosenCyclone=al092024&amp;cyclones=al092024&amp;card=cyclone-state">Climate Central forensic analysis</a> showed that such marine heat in the Gulf has become at least six times more likely at that time of year because of the warming effects of greenhouse gas pollution.</p><p>Even in the best of circumstances, the hormonal and physiological changes that women go through during pregnancy and the months after giving birth can strain mental health. Postpartum depression and other mental health conditions are the most common complication of childbirth, afflicting about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919a2.htm?s_cid=mm6919a2_w">1 in 8 people</a>, only <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519070/">half of whom</a> are diagnosed. These problems are the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/php/data-research/mmrc-2017-2019.html#:~:text=Among%20the%201%2C018%20pregnancy%2Drelated,because%20of%20small%20population%20size.">leading cause</a> of pregnancy-related deaths, and contribute to the <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2024/jun/insights-us-maternal-mortality-crisis-international-comparison">extraordinarily high</a> maternal mortality rate in the U.S.</p><p>During the past decade, the federal government made significant investments in preventing and treating maternal mental health problems. Congress has funded outreach programs, a hotline for struggling parents, and an array of research on the topic. However, recent federal cuts to healthcare have jeopardized some of those programs.</p><p>Monard wasn’t diagnosed with a mental health disorder as the stressors piled up after the storm, but she became scared for herself and for her baby&#8217;s well being.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>“I just know that if I go down, my baby goes down,” Monard said.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Toll of Survival</strong></h3><p>In August 2005, epidemiologist Emily Harville had just moved to New Orleans for a job at Tulane University when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.</p><p>Her graduate research had focused on the impact of stress during the perinatal period–the months before and after giving birth – so in Katrina’s aftermath she began visiting hospitals in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. She and her colleagues <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2393-9-21">ultimately interviewed</a> hundreds of women who were pregnant when Katrina hit or who became pregnant soon thereafter. Many had faced a life-threatening situation, lost a loved one to the storm, or had their property demolished. Those who had suffered at least two serious hardships had a 77% higher rate of postpartum depression and a 268% higher chance of post-traumatic stress disorder than those who had not. Researchers have since found the same phenomenon among pregnant people who survived the 2008 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jts.22056">Iowa floods</a> and megastorms in other countries. Others have pinpointed developmental and health impacts on children who were in utero during the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2015/570541">Iowa</a> floods, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10578-018-0828-2">2012 Hurricane Sandy</a> along the eastern seaboard and 2018 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36781693/">Hurricane Michael</a> in Florida,</p><p>Those results aren’t entirely surprising, Harville said. The risk of depression and trauma goes up after a storm no matter who you are, but the effect is stronger in women and parents, as well as among poor, non-white and less educated people; new moms disproportionately fall into those categories.&nbsp;</p><p>When a new mom is disabled by depression, she’s not the only one who struggles.&nbsp;</p><p>“When a mother is depressed, she’s less able to bond with and take care of her baby,” Harville said. This can affect her infants’ development and stymie her ability to care for other children. Since mothers carry a disproportionate amount of the burden of household management, when they are affected by a mental health disorder, she said, “the family doesn’t work as well.”&nbsp;</p><p>Perinatal health care practitioners in the hardest hit parts of the Southeast said they’ve been watching this phenomenon play out in their communities since Helene. Before the storm, Heather Herman, a perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner in West Jefferson, N.C., already had a full schedule of patients who were navigating depression and other challenges. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, many abruptly stopped reaching out for help. When she finally got ahold of them again, they said their lives were too chaotic to worry about their mental health. Families lost childcare when schools and daycares closed for weeks. Many lost cars to the floods, limiting their transportation options. With so much to repair or replace and lost wages, many families’ financial stability faltered.&nbsp;</p><p>“When there&#8217;s a storm like this, everybody is going to prioritize basic needs first, that&#8217;s just part of the human condition,” Herman said. “Parents are going to prioritize their kids and put themselves last. Unfortunately, that has a negative impact on the kids as well.”&nbsp;</p><p>In some cases, parents struggled to even feed their infants. Parts of western North Carolina went nearly two months on a boil water notice because the floodwaters had contaminated drinking waters. Some parents had no clean water to add to formula, said Katherine Hyde-Hensley, a perinatal psychologist who sees clients in and around Asheville. There are few greater stressors for new parents than not being able to safely feed their infant, she said.&nbsp;</p><p>Hyde-Hensley said some clients evacuated to homes of friends and family elsewhere, but that didn’t protect them from weeks of instability and chaos as they tried to return home.&nbsp;</p><p>“They were trying to figure out, &#8216;Can I come back?&#8217;” Hyde-Hensley said. &#8220;&#8216;Can I wash bottles? Can I wash dishes? Can I wash diapers? How am I going to bathe my baby?&#8217;”&nbsp;</p><p>Allison Rollans, a doula, childbirth educator, infant specialist, and owner of High Country Doulas, serves clients in eastern Tennessee, northwestern North Carolina, and southwestern Virginia, all of which sustained major damage in the storm. She said many of her clients have yet to fully grasp the stress of what they’ve lived through.&nbsp;</p><p>“When you’re in it, you’re just sort of going through it, you’re in survival mode,” Rollans said. “It will take years of reflecting on this to see the real impact of it.”&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A Warmer World</strong></h3><p>As temperatures rise and as neighborhoods continue to be built and expand in vulnerable places, weather disasters are striking more frequently and with more ferocity. Helene was one of <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/2024-global-and-us-review">27 disasters across the U.S. to cause at least $1 billion in damage last year</a>. Thirty-five years ago, the U.S. experienced an average of nine such disasters each year.&nbsp;</p><p>The growing risks are not lost on new parents, said epidemiologist Jennifer Barkin, a professor at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia.&nbsp;</p><p>Maternal mental health has always been a focus of Barkin’s research. Recently, she’s begun to focus on the impact of climate disasters. In one study, Barkin’s team <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/12/11/168">surveyed</a> 101 postpartum women in Australia about their levels of distress. Unsurprisingly, the more aware the women were of the growing risk of climate catastrophes, and the more vulnerable they expected to be when one struck their community, the higher their rates of anxiety and distress.&nbsp;</p><p>Days after her team submitted the Australian paper for publication last fall, Helene arrived in southern Georgia. Although the storm didn’t hit Barkin’s home in Macon directly, it caused widespread flooding and power outages in the rural counties south of town, where Barkin’s research team works with pregnant and postpartum women.</p><p>“I don’t think that area had ever seen a storm like that before,” Barkin said. “We weren’t able to conduct business as usual because [my team] didn’t have access to gas or electricity.”</p><p>In the months since, her team interviewed 24 new moms in Georgia, including Monard, about their experiences and their feelings of ongoing safety.</p><p>Hyde-Hensley said the planet’s environmental future has come up again and again in her conversations with clients. Even before the storms, many new parents felt profoundly worried about “what their child is going to have to deal with for the next 60 to 80 years,” she said. The storm made that threat tangible, and plunged some into anxiety about future storms.&nbsp;</p><p>That fear is rational, because stakes get higher as more climate disasters strike a community, Barkin said.</p><p>“You’re more resilient if it’s not chronic. When an area is getting flooded over and over, the community can&#8217;t bounce back the same way,” she said.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Community Comes Together After Disaster Hits</strong></h3><p>“It was pitch black and you couldn’t see anything, but all you could hear was the storm, the trees just literally snapping, sounding like popsicle sticks breaking off into the distance,” said Allyson Byrd, whose son was three months old when Hurricane Helene hit. “That was such an eerie, kind of an ominous type feeling.”</p><p>Byrd, who has three older children from ages six to nine, said the storm took a mental toll on her. Byrd lives with her four children and her parents in her hometown of Swainsboro, Georgia.&nbsp;</p><p>“It was hard to keep [my children] afloat and myself afloat mentally,” she said.</p><p>Even Byrd’s older children were too young to fully understand what was happening, why the lights were out for so long, and why there was nothing else to keep them busy except each other’s company.</p><p>“That was a lot mentally for me to try to balance,” Byrd said. “I needed to stay stable myself while keeping the kids mentally stable and not let them see me fall apart.”</p><p>There was also the stress of trying to figure out how to store breastmilk at a safe temperature without a working refrigerator. When the storm made landfall in South Georgia, Byrd was trying to make the transition from breastmilk to formula with her new baby. But it was hard to locate ice to keep the milk from spoiling.</p><p>“Once people were able to get some type of cellular service they were making social media posts to get cans of milk from people,” Byrd said.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd.jpg?resize=780%2C585&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-229616" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Allyson-Byrd-1296x972.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Allyson Byrd is a mother of four in Swainsboro Georgia. Her youngest child was only three months old when Hurricane Helene hit her hometown in southern Georgia. (Photo by Sarah Melotte)</em></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the hardship, Byrd said it was encouraging to see her community come together to support each other during the storm.&nbsp;</p><p>“Economic status and where you stood as far as salary level, all of that just got put in the background,” Byrd said. “It didn’t matter.”</p><p>Herman, the psychiatric nurse practitioner in West Jefferson, has observed that both giving and receiving this kind of community support has served her clients. “It’s so helpful to us, as humans, to be able to extend help to one another, and I think that was protective to people who had that opportunity.”</p><p>Research by Harville’s team and others has confirmed that social support can shield pregnant people from the worst mental health outcomes of a disaster. Among other things, Harville’s team <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jwh.2009.1693">found</a> that people who had sustained major intangible losses – family stability, feelings of closeness and companionship with loved ones, a daily routine, and time for sleep –&nbsp; suffered far more depression than those whose losses were mainly tangible – cars, homes, possessions, even access to food.&nbsp;</p><p>This <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-017-0781-2">critical support can come</a> from a trusted maternal health provider. After experiencing major floods in Queensland, Australia, women who had a strong and continuous relationship with their midwife throughout the disaster had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than those who didn’t.</p><p>Birth doulas, whose <a href="https://www.acog.org/womens-health/experts-and-stories/the-latest/im-an-ob-gyn-heres-why-i-had-a-doula-help-with-my-delivery#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20doula%3F,(more%20on%20this%20below).">role</a>s include helping postpartum mothers meet their emotional and physical needs, may have played a similar role for their clients during and after Helene. “As a birth doula, we have very close contact with our clients personally before labor and after labor,” said Emily Bohannon, executive director of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/p/Statesboro-Birth-Circle-100054623221518/">Birth Circle Community</a>, a nonprofit organization aimed at empowering families through efforts like birth preparation classes and postpartum social support in Statesboro, Georgia.&nbsp;</p><p>When Helene hit, the group amped up their support for families with new babies, organizing a supply drive for clean water, formula, and diapers. The community support was overwhelming; at the end of the drive, the Birth Circle Community ended up with double the amount of items they started with.</p><p>“Within a week, we were able to get hundreds of items from local people and nonprofits and business owners,” Bohannon said. “The day of the supply drive, we had dozens of families show up and get their items that they needed.”&nbsp;</p><p>Social support can also come from public programs. Harville’s team <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10995-014-1579-8">compared</a> Katrina-affected pregnant women who had standard prenatal care to those who also received services from New Orleans Healthy Start. Healthy Start, a federal program started in 1991, provides services to families in 115 American communities, from pregnancy until the child reaches 18 months old.&nbsp;</p><p>Healthy Start outreach workers provide prenatal care and education, help families navigate housing and food services, promote fathers’ involvement, and facilitate mental health screenings and referrals.&nbsp;</p><p>Harville&#8217;s team found that compared to the women who received standard prenatal care, those in Healthy Start were disproportionately young, low-income, unpartnered, and Black, had suffered worse experiences in the storm, and had more symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress than their better-resourced peers outside of the program – all factors associated with worse birth outcomes. Through Healthy Start these women received mental health counseling and prenatal education, and their birth outcomes were no different than their better resourced peers’.&nbsp;</p><p>Awareness of postpartum depression has exploded over the last decade, said Wendy Davis, president and CEO of <a href="https://postpartum.net/">Postpartum Support International</a> (PSI), a nonprofit that provides support to new parents struggling with their mental health and trains health care professionals on the issue. Compared to 10 years ago, more providers are educated about postpartum depression, some states require insurance companies to cover it, the screening rate has increased, and there are better services for those who suffer.&nbsp;</p><p>At the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, he signed a bill creating the <a href="https://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs-impact/national-maternal-mental-health-hotline">Maternal Mental Health Hotline</a>, whose counselors answer calls and texts 24 hours a day in English and Spanish. The hotline is operated by PSI, whose counselors provide a listening ear, advice, and connections to local therapists and support groups for parents struggling with their mental health. Davis said that use of the hotline has <a href="https://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs-impact/national-maternal-mental-health-hotline/hotline-data">steadily climbed</a> since it launched on Mothers Day 2022, and it now receives thousands of calls and messages every month. Davis said that outreach to the hotline spikes after hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires.&nbsp;</p><p>The Biden-Harris administration also embraced the issue, releasing a blueprint for lowering the country’s sky-high levels of maternal mortality, which is highest for Black mothers.</p><p>It’s unclear if these new investments in the wellbeing of young families will remain intact under Trump’s second administration, which has pursued sweeping cuts to health services and research. Within weeks of Trump’s inauguration, the administration <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/03/cdc-pauses-prams-database-which-tracks-racial-disparities-maternal-health/">paused</a> the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, an annual survey of maternal and infant health widely considered the gold-standard for maternity mental health data. At the end of March, the <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/01/prams-maternal-mortality-cdc-layoffs/">entire staff overseeing the survey </a>was placed on administrative leave. The administration has also revoked <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5342368/addiction-trump-mental-health-funding">billions</a> in grants that had already been <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2025/03/27/georgias-public-health-community-warns-of-fallout-proposed-federal-funding-cuts">given</a> to state health departments, including some that had funded maternal mental health services.</p><p>Research on maternal and infant mortality has also been affected. Much of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Reproductive Health, which studies maternal health, was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/health/cdc-layoffs-kennedy.html">shuttered</a>, as was its Birth Defects Center. More than a dozen research centers designed to investigate and improve maternal health were established in 2023 through a $168 million initiative by the National Institutes of Health; their funding is now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/15/trump-medical-research-funding-maternal-mortality">in question</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Harville says her current disaster research is not federally funded, but she has other grants she’s “keeping a nervous eye on.”&nbsp;</p><p>Healthy Start was among the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/28/upshot/federal-programs-funding-trump-omb.html">programs</a> whose funding was briefly <a href="https://lailluminator.com/2025/02/02/new-orleans-health/">suspended</a> by a Trump executive order in January before a federal judge blocked the move. Late last year, <a href="https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2024/10/28/congressional-appropriations-proposals-cut-maternal-health-investments/">some versions</a> of the Republican-proposed House budget bill <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/house-republican-bills-deeply-cut-programs-that-help-low-income-people-and">sought to eliminate funding</a> for Healthy Start. The administration is also reported to be considering deep cuts to Medicaid, which <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/quality-of-care/quality-improvement-initiatives/maternal-infant-health-care-quality">finances</a> at least 42% of all births in the country.&nbsp;</p><p>Davis said the hotline seems to be safe for now. The federal workers who provided administrative oversight of the Maternal Mental Health Hotline were laid off as part of the DOGE workforce reduction, said Davis, but other agency officials have stepped in to do that work, and the hotline remains operational and well supported. She said PSI’s contract was recently re-upped for three years, which she hopes will protect them from cuts. But she said it is painful to see other funding setbacks, which could slice into the real progress made on the issue over the last decade.&nbsp;</p><p>“It’s been so promising to see state and health care policy start to focus on this very vulnerable and important time,” she said.&nbsp;</p><p>In February 2025, five months after Hurricane Helene made landfall, the Swainsboro resident, Jelessica Monard, gave birth to a healthy baby girl. With power restored and her fridge back up and running, Monard’s fiance visited for several weeks in February and into March, taking time off from his job in New Jersey to help with their daughter.</p><p>“I could get some sleep. I could pump. I had a schedule,” Monard said. “It was easier.”</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/climate-disasters-inflict-outsized-harm-on-pregnant-and-young-families/2025/05/07/">Climate Disasters Inflict Outsized Harm on Pregnant and Young Families</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  100. <item>
  101. <title>Idolizing the &#8220;Tradwife&#8221; Is Tricky Business</title>
  102. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/idolizing-the-tradwife-is-tricky-business/2025/05/07/</link>
  103. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/idolizing-the-tradwife-is-tricky-business/2025/05/07/#respond</comments>
  105. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Claire Carlson]]></dc:creator>
  106. <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
  107. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  108. <category><![CDATA[Keep It Rural]]></category>
  109. <category><![CDATA[Trump's Second Term]]></category>
  110. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229633</guid>
  111.  
  112. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  113. <p>Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. Internet trends rarely endure, but one has stuck around long enough that I’ve decided to finally write [&#8230;]</p>
  114. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/idolizing-the-tradwife-is-tricky-business/2025/05/07/">Idolizing the &#8220;Tradwife&#8221; Is Tricky Business</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  115. ]]></description>
  116. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jon-flobrant-C2PvO6dOORY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p><em>Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/keep-it-rural/"><em>Keep It Rural</em></a><em>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/contact-us/subscribe-daily-yonder/"><em>Join the mailing list</em></a><em> for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week.</em><br></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/><p>Internet trends rarely endure, but one has stuck around long enough that I’ve decided to finally write about it: the mystic tradwife, a.k.a. “traditional housewife.” She’s beautiful and long-haired and most often white, adorned in flowy natural fabrics or pleated dresses that scream the 1950s. She’s a mother, a wife, a Michelin rated chef without the official certification – she is a man’s version of the perfect woman. And she’s the internet’s version, too.&nbsp;</p><p>There are countless tradwives on Instagram and TikTok who’ve garnered millions of fans, hundreds of millions of views. They usually live in a quaint cottage or barn out in the country with their 10 children and husband and sourdough starter. Their lives are bucolic onscreen, idealizing homemaking and family traditions while performing nonstop for a camera. It’s exhausting to watch yet I never want the content to end.&nbsp;</p><p>Much of what they preach fits squarely within the pronatalist policies defining the current Republican party. In late April, a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/trump-birthrate-proposals.html">report</a> showed President Donald Trump is considering different incentives for Americans to get married and have babies, ranging from honoring women with six or more children with a “National Medal of Motherhood” to paying parents a $5,000 reward for each baby they birth.&nbsp;</p><p>The cash incentive is a worse version of the already-existing <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/child-tax-credit-expansion-lowered-family-stress-and-improved-mental-health/2024/02/02/">child tax credit</a>, which provides money every year to parents within certain income brackets for each child they have. Democrats and some Republicans are <a href="https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/the-2025-tax-debate-the-child-tax-credit-in-tcja/">advocating</a> to increase the credit and expand its eligibility criteria before the current legislation expires at the end of 2025, but so far the White House has not voiced support of the bill, even though it arguably falls under a pronatalist framework.</p><p>Instead, the administration seems most interested in proliferating traditional family ideals as epitomized by tradwife culture, where people can be categorized neatly into the husband, wife, and child(ren) roles. At a March for Life rally in Washington D.C. earlier this year, Vice President J.D. Vance <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/america-is-a-pro-family-country-jd-vance-reaffirms-trump-administrations-commitment-to-life/">said</a> that declining U.S. birth rates are because a culture of “radical individualism” has taken root, “one where the responsibilities and joys of family life [are] seen as obstacles to overcome, not as personal fulfillment or personal blessing.”&nbsp;</p><p>He goes on to say he wants “more babies in the United States of America… and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.”</p><p>Being pro-family is a good thing, considering the future of humanity depends on reproduction – in whatever shape that might take. And I agree that American individualism has gone too far, but Vance’s solution – more babies now! – is impossible without the policies that his administration seems intent on dismantling.&nbsp;</p><p>They’ve already taken a hatchet to Head Start, the free childcare program for low-income families that <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/dismantling-the-head-start-program-will-hurt-rural-families/2025/05/01/">predominantly serves rural</a> communities. They’re doing the same to the Department of Education, arguing that getting rid of federal oversight will enable states and families to have more say in their children’s education.&nbsp;</p><p>With each new executive order or agency layoff, I can’t help but imagine a Jenga tower, that game made of wooden blocks where each player has to remove one without knocking the whole tower over. There are no winners in Jenga, just the biggest loser who pulls the final block before it all comes crashing down.&nbsp;</p><p>Right now, the Trump administration is playing Jenga, pulling block after block until all that’s left is a wobbly tower built on the whims of a few powerful individuals who think the nation should look a certain way. But the nation they’re imagining – the one we’re all fed through tradwife content – can’t exist without the building blocks they’re throwing away. I worry that soon none of us will be left standing, not even the tradwives.&nbsp;</p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/idolizing-the-tradwife-is-tricky-business/2025/05/07/">Idolizing the &#8220;Tradwife&#8221; Is Tricky Business</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  125. <title>Take the Daily Yonder Reader Survey</title>
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  129. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff]]></dc:creator>
  130. <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
  131. <category><![CDATA[From Our Team]]></category>
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  134. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
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  137. ]]></description>
  138. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Untitled-16-scaled.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>Since the Daily Yonder first launched in 2007, we&#8217;ve depended upon support from our readers. For the past 18 years, we&#8217;ve strived to be America&#8217;s top source of information about rural communities.</p><p>We&#8217;ve got some exciting things cooking for 2025 and we&#8217;re working to make the Yonder stronger and more valuable than ever. To help us get there, we need to hear from you. </p><p>Take about 10 minutes to <a href="https://forms.gle/P8SC5rjEm8rQzGeh8">complete our Daily Yonder Reader Survey</a> and tell us what you want to see from the Yonder, and we&#8217;ll do our best to keep delivering in the weeks, months, and years to come. <strong>Once your survey is submitted, you’ll have the option to be entered into a drawing to win Daily Yonder merchandise and a $50 gift card.</strong></p><div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex"><div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-primary-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button" href="https://forms.gle/P8SC5rjEm8rQzGeh8">Take the survey</a></div></div><p><em>Your answers will be used only for the purposes of analyzing the Daily Yonder&#8217;s readership, and how to serve it better. Your answers will not be shared with anyone else or used in any individually identifiable fashion.</em></p><p></p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/take-the-daily-yonder-reader-survey/2025/05/07/">Take the Daily Yonder Reader Survey</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  139. ]]></content:encoded>
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  142. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  145. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229558</post-id> </item>
  146. <item>
  147. <title>Analysis: Trump 2026 Budget Slashes Rural Housing and Other Programs </title>
  148. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/</link>
  149. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/#respond</comments>
  151. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joe Belden]]></dc:creator>
  152. <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 14:42:30 +0000</pubDate>
  153. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  154. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229579</guid>
  155.  
  156. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="650" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?fit=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?w=2250&amp;ssl=1 2250w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=760%2C482&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1296%2C823&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=768%2C487&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1536%2C975&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=2048%2C1300&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1200%2C762&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=2000%2C1269&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=780%2C495&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=400%2C254&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=706%2C448&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?fit=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  157. <p>President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 federal budget outline, released on May 2, proposes deep cuts and many outright eliminations for housing and other programs serving rural America. If adopted by Congress, key U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development and housing programs would be completely eliminated. Major Housing and Urban Development programs that are important in [&#8230;]</p>
  158. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/">Analysis: Trump 2026 Budget Slashes Rural Housing and Other Programs </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  159. ]]></description>
  160. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="650" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?fit=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?w=2250&amp;ssl=1 2250w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=760%2C482&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1296%2C823&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=768%2C487&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1536%2C975&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=2048%2C1300&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1200%2C762&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=2000%2C1269&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=780%2C495&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=400%2C254&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?resize=706%2C448&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AP100405024827.jpg?fit=1024%2C650&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 federal budget outline, released on May 2, proposes deep cuts and many outright eliminations for housing and other programs serving rural America. </p><p>If adopted by Congress, key U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development and housing programs would be completely eliminated. Major Housing and Urban Development programs that are important in rural areas also would get zero dollars next year, and many social safety net programs would be cut. </p><p>In the first Trump term, Congress on a bipartisan basis rejected similar cuts. Whether that will hold this year may be in doubt.&nbsp;</p><p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf">OMB statement</a> says, “Savings come from eliminating radical diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory programs, Green New Scam funding, large swaths of the Federal Government weaponized against the American people, and moving programs that are better suited for States and localities to provide.”&nbsp;</p><p>The document released on May 2 is a “skinny” budget – an outline of the final full budget proposal. It states that the Department of Defense would get an increase of $113 billion.&nbsp;</p><p>First maybe some good and interesting news:&nbsp; The proposed budget says that it “furthers investment in rural communities by creating a new $100 million award program that would provide access to affordable financing and spur economic development in rural America. This new program would require 60% of Community Development Financial Institutions’ (CDFIs’) loans and investments to go to rural areas.”</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">USDA Programs</h3><p>Key USDA housing programs that would receive zero 2026 funding under the Trump budget include USDA Sec. 502 direct home loans for low-income borrowers and the 60-year-old self-help housing program.&nbsp;</p><p>Turning to USDA Rural Development, the document says that the “Budget would also eliminate programs that are duplicative, too small to have macro-economic impact, costly to deliver, in limited demand, available through the private sector, or conceived as temporary. These include rural business programs, single family housing direct loans, self-help housing grants, telecommunications loans, and rural housing vouchers. Rural Development salaries and expenses are reduced commensurately.”</p><p>Hmmm. Well, the 502 loan program dates from 1950 and is one of the federal government’s oldest housing programs for low-income people. It is also a loan program that is repaid to the government. The Sec. 502 direct program between 1950 and 2020 has provided loans to allow 2.2 million low-income rural families to become homeowners. Most of those families would not have become homeowners without that program. </p><p>USDA self-help housing is a unique sweat equity program in which groups of families work together to build their own homes.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">HUD Programs</h3><p>Despite its name, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is a vital source of funding for rural areas and suburbs as well as cities. The Trump 2026 budget would provide zero funds for Community Development Block Grants and the HOME program, cutting $3.3 billion from CDBG and $1.2 billion from HOME. Both programs are among HUD’s most important initiatives and are used extensively in rural areas and small cities. But the bigger shocker is that one of the federal government’s most important and largest social safety net programs, tenant-based rental assistance, would be cut by $26.7 billion. A number of HUD programs would be consolidated into a new initiative of State Rental Assistance Block Grants. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition estimates that this will result in a 43% cut in rental assistance..</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Other Cuts</h3><ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) at the Department of Health and Human Services would be eliminated. The budget document says that energy support for low-income households can be achieved through “energy dominance, lower prices, and an America First economic platform.”</li>
  161.  
  162. <li>The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund’s discretionary grants would end. The budget language says these awards “were abused to serve a partisan agenda.” This Treasury program supports urban and rural nonprofit loan funds.&nbsp;</li>
  163.  
  164. <li>The $770 million Community Services Block Grant program would be eliminated. It has funded many rural Community Action Agencies since the 1960s.</li>
  165.  
  166. <li>$624 million in funding for the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration and Minority Business Development Agency would be eliminated.&nbsp;</li></ul><p>At the Interior Department, the proposed budget supports the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Indian Education.&nbsp;But the proposal “also weeds out radical woke grants and programs and streamlines other programs for tribal communities that were ineffective.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">What Will Congress Do?</h3><p>Congress in the annual appropriations process acts on a President’s proposed budget. Theoretically a 2026 federal budget should be completed by October 1, 2025. House Speaker Mike Johnson sounds all in:</p><p>&#8220;President Trump’s proposed budget is a bold blueprint…. [It] makes clear that fiscal discipline is non-negotiable. President Trump’s plan ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet projects.”</p><p>The next steps will be House and Senate hearings on the proposals.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p><em>Joe Belden is a writer and consultant based in Washington, D.C</em>.  </p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/">Analysis: Trump 2026 Budget Slashes Rural Housing and Other Programs </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  167. ]]></content:encoded>
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  170. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  173. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229579</post-id> </item>
  174. <item>
  175. <title>Without AmeriCorps, Rural Communities Will Lose Essential Social Services</title>
  176. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/without-americorps-rural-communities-will-lose-essential-social-services/2025/05/06/</link>
  177. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/without-americorps-rural-communities-will-lose-essential-social-services/2025/05/06/#comments</comments>
  179. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
  180. <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  181. <category><![CDATA[Community & Economic Development]]></category>
  182. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  183. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  184. <category><![CDATA[Yonder Report]]></category>
  185. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229563</guid>
  186.  
  187. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  188. <p>On Friday, April 25, Sorrell Redford, education director for Montezuma School to Farm Project, heard that their AmeriCorps funding through Serve Colorado would run out following abrupt cuts from the federal government. The agency bought themselves a few extra days by cobbling together two weeks-worth of funds to help ease the transition and possibly, to [&#8230;]</p>
  189. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/without-americorps-rural-communities-will-lose-essential-social-services/2025/05/06/">Without AmeriCorps, Rural Communities Will Lose Essential Social Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  190. ]]></description>
  191. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_1043-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>On Friday, April 25, Sorrell Redford, education director for Montezuma School to Farm Project, heard that their AmeriCorps funding through Serve Colorado would run out following abrupt cuts from the federal government. The agency bought themselves a few extra days by cobbling together two weeks-worth of funds to help ease the transition and possibly, to tide them over until a court reversal.&nbsp;</p><p>Near the end of April, DOGE cut <a href="http://s462417817.onlinehome.us/">over 1,000 AmeriCorps grants</a> totalling nearly $400 million across the United States. Many of these programs provided pivotal social services for rural communities that do not have the resources to fill these gaps without federal funding.&nbsp;</p><p>In Cortez, Colorado, Montezuma School to Farm Project depends on AmeriCorps members to keep the organization going. The nonprofit teaches garden classes in local public schools and also grows food for the food pantry, Good Samaritans. Redford said they have a goal to produce 6,000 pounds of food this year.&nbsp;</p><p>Redford said the organization only pays $300 for each AmeriCorps member right now and the government subsidizes the rest. “Without that, we could not afford to employ them,” she said. She hopes that they will be able to pay for their current members until the end of their terms in July, but it will cost the organization an extra $5,300 a month — a lot for a small nonprofit.&nbsp;</p><p>On Tuesday, April 29, 24 states and the District of Columbia, including Colorado and Kentucky, filed <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.581470/gov.uscourts.mdd.581470.1.0.pdf">a lawsuit</a> against the Trump Administration’s cuts to AmeriCorps funding, calling it unconstitutional because it “usurps Congress’s power of the purse” and does not allow the agency to serve its mission and purpose.&nbsp;</p><p>While Redford hopes the lawsuit will restore funding for their programs, it could come too late for both the current members and next year&#8217;s AmeriCorps members, who would start in August. Redford has already made an offer to a member for next year but now that is up in the air. Without AmeriCorps starting in late summer, the harvest season will fall entirely to Redford, currently Montezuma School to Farm Project’s&nbsp; only full time employee.&nbsp;</p><p>“There’s a whole trickle down effect, if we can&#8217;t grow the food, we can&#8217;t get it to the food bank, they won&#8217;t have fresh food to give out,” Redford said. The pantry is already hurting due to <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/governor-polis-usda-cuts-hurt-colorado-kids-farmers">USDA grant cuts</a> that fund local purchases for food pantries and schools. The AmeriCorps also work as volunteers in the pantry distributing food. Adding insult to injury, AmeriCorps’ absence in Montezuma would halt garden classes , hurting both teachers and students.&nbsp;</p><p>In Colorado, 27 out of 37 AmeriCorps programs were cut, said Colorado Lieutenant Governor, Dianne Primavera. Seventeen of those were in rural areas. Serve Colorado, the state agency that manages Colorado AmeriCorps, is under the office of the Lieutenant Governor. Primavera said that Colorado lost about $12 million of funding for rural areas alone.&nbsp;</p><p>“AmeriCorps members’ service is the only support system in many rural towns, so losing these programs isn&#8217;t just a budget issue, it&#8217;s a community resilience issue,” Primavera said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.&nbsp;</p><p>Primavera emphasized that AmeriCorps is a workforce development program –&nbsp;many AmeriCorps members go on to become teachers, mental health professionals, firefighters and other vital community professions, based on their experiences in AmeriCorps.&nbsp;</p><p>“This isn&#8217;t a time to cut AmeriCorps. It&#8217;s a time really, to double down on services, not dismantle it,” said Primavera.&nbsp;</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479.jpg?resize=780%2C585&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-229566" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_9479-1296x972.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Montezuma School to Farm Project AmeriCorps members teach a garden class to students at Kemper Elementary School in Cortez, Colorado. (Photo courtesy of Sorrell Redford)</figcaption></figure><h3 class="wp-block-heading">History of AmeriCorps</h3><p>AmeriCorps programs have been around, under various names, since the 1960s, when the Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, program was established as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Even before that, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. It was later used as a model for conservation corps programs that still exist today, many of which are funded through AmeriCorps grants.&nbsp;</p><p>While AmeriCorps does operate some direct programs like the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), most of the funding through the program goes directly to city and county governments, nonprofits, and other organizations doing work on the ground in communities.</p><p>Service members receive a small stipend for their service term which can last from a few months to over a year. At the end of the term, members are eligible to receive an education award of around $7000 that can be applied towards future education opportunities or towards student loans. For any AmeriCorps member affected by grant cuts, education awards stopped accruing and will be prorated as of April 25, 2025, violating contracts signed by these members at the beginning of their service terms.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Eastern Kentucky</h3><p>On Saturday, April 26, Josh Mullins received a call from Serve Kentucky that Hindman Settlement School’s AmeriCorps funding – over a million dollars – had been cut by the Trump Administration.&nbsp;</p><p>Hindman Settlement School in Eastern Kentucky had two AmeriCorps grants to fund 52 service members across five different counties in seven school districts, providing math and reading tutoring for K-3rd grade students.&nbsp;</p><p>Mullins, the director of operations for Hindman Settlement School, said that the organization had been an AmeriCorps grantee for the past five years and they shouldn’t have had to reapply for funding until next year for their ReadingCorps program, and two years from now for their Math Corps program.&nbsp;</p><p>“The school systems rely on these services to help their most at-risk students,” Mullins said in a Daily Yonder interview. “The schools do not have the staffing to provide one on one intervention,” he said. AmeriCorps members directly fill these gaps, providing tutoring to students falling behind in math and reading.&nbsp;</p><p>In Kentucky, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.581470/gov.uscourts.mdd.581470.1.0.pdf">21 out of 28 AmeriCorps programs were cut </a>–&nbsp;$9 million dollars of funding – affecting the service terms of 691 volunteers. While called volunteers, AmeriCorps members are full time (sometimes more than full time) employees, and for many, it is their primary employment, despite being paid a near-poverty-wage stipend.&nbsp;</p><p>Mullins said that Hindman Settlement School is committed to funding their service members until the end of their terms in July. They are currently fundraising to fill the gap left by the AmeriCorps funding cuts.&nbsp;</p><p>“If we don&#8217;t win the lawsuit, everything will stop immediately. There&#8217;ll be some not for profits, that will have to shut their doors,” said Lt. Governor Primavera.&nbsp;</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/without-americorps-rural-communities-will-lose-essential-social-services/2025/05/06/">Without AmeriCorps, Rural Communities Will Lose Essential Social Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  198. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229563</post-id> </item>
  199. <item>
  200. <title>USDA Funding Uncertainty Puts Maine Farmers in a Bind</title>
  201. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/usda-funding-uncertainty-puts-maine-farmers-in-a-bind/2025/05/06/</link>
  202. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/usda-funding-uncertainty-puts-maine-farmers-in-a-bind/2025/05/06/#respond</comments>
  204. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Adrienne Washington / Maine Monitor]]></dc:creator>
  205. <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  206. <category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
  207. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  208. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  209. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229422</guid>
  210.  
  211. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  212. <p>This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor. As the warm air of a spring day milled across the acres of pasture along the long dirt road leading through Old Crow Ranch in Durham, Maine, Steve Sinisi and his wife, Seren, settled onto the porch of their farm stand. Sitting just inches apart, they [&#8230;]</p>
  213. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/usda-funding-uncertainty-puts-maine-farmers-in-a-bind/2025/05/06/">USDA Funding Uncertainty Puts Maine Farmers in a Bind</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  214. ]]></description>
  215. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinsi-pigs-1600x900-1.webp?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p class="has-text-align-center"><em>This story was originally published by <a href="https://themainemonitor.org/usda-funding-uncertainty/">The Maine Monitor</a></em>.</p><p>As the warm air of a spring day milled across the acres of pasture along the long dirt road leading through Old Crow Ranch in Durham, Maine, Steve Sinisi and his wife, Seren, settled onto the porch of their farm stand. Sitting just inches apart, they shared laughs and voiced anxieties about their decision to become farmers in rural Maine and spoke of failures and successes. </p><p>One big concern loomed large: the possibility that they may not receive money owed to them by the federal government, which they were counting on when planning for the season ahead.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Their farm, which produces pasture-raised beef, pork and poultry, is one of only a handful of working farms remaining in town. The couple launched the farm in 2008, and worked with the Royal River Conservation Trust to designate it as a “forever farm,” so the land will always be used for agriculture, even if it is turned over to new owners.</p><p>Seren, who grew up in Union, said she’s used to the feeling of just barely scraping by. She had hoped farming would bring a sense of security, but with funding freezes and uncertainty under the Trump administration’s government efficiency efforts, these warm spring days serve as a reminder of the upcoming projects they have committed to for the coming season, and raise a question of whether they can still meet them.</p><p>“I don’t know a farmer that’s gonna go plant… just not knowing,” Steve Sinisi said. “That’s not how we work. Our margins don’t work that way… We don’t just (decide) oh, I’m going to go buy 180 pigs just for fun.”</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/themainemonitor.org/nitropack_static/NwhwSfJLhPZNfPlBOkPVmsiHgZhtCazP/assets/images/optimized/rev-381ad45/themainemonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Sinsi-family_OldCrowRanch.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="The Sinsi family poses for a photo on their farm." class="wp-image-35786"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Seren and Steve Sinisi at Old Crow Ranch with their daughters Addie and Vinka. Their farm is one of a handful of remaining working farms in Durham. (Photo by Fred J. Field)</figcaption></figure><p>Last year, their farm was awarded a $34,000 grant through the Rural Energy for America Program, which they planned to use to install a solar array. But the Trump administration&nbsp;paused the funding earlier this year,&nbsp;<a href="https://planetdetroit.org/2025/04/usda-rural-energy-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">before announcing</a>&nbsp;it would be released, leaving the Sinisis to cover the costs of the project at a higher interest rate than the initial agreement would have required, which they said will be a challenge.</p><p>“We will make it work, because we are committed to farming,” Seren Sinisi said. “But it won’t be pretty.”</p><p>The Rural Energy for America Program is just one of several U.S. Department of Agriculture initiatives that have been paused or cancelled by the Trump administration as it aims to slash what it sees as wasteful bureaucracy and overhead.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Cuts and Funding Freezes</strong></h3><p>The department has cut the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy produce from local farmers.</p><p>And it cancelled the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which was set to give Maine projects $3 million for efforts that would help farms build resilient practices as the climate changes.&nbsp;</p><p>The administration argues the climate-smart program did not give enough funding directly to farmers, and is planning to overhaul the program into something it’s calling Advancing Markets for Producers, which will require that 65 percent of federal funds go directly to farmers.&nbsp;</p><p>“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in a press release.</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/themainemonitor.org/nitropack_static/NwhwSfJLhPZNfPlBOkPVmsiHgZhtCazP/assets/images/optimized/rev-381ad45/themainemonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USDA-funding-cuts-walk.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="demonstrators walk through a street." class="wp-image-35793"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Mainers of all ages participated in a rally against USDA funding cuts on April 16 in Augusta. (Photo by Adrienne Washington)</figcaption></figure><p>In addition to these cuts, more than $12 million in Maine contracts that were approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service are in limbo, according to Sarah Alexander, the executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.</p><p>“Prior to this administration, the USDA has long been viewed as a partner in helping support farm viability, access to markets, creation of markets, and the trust has really been broken,” Alexander said. “Farmers really aren’t sure if they can trust these projects and these programs moving forward, and that’s really devastating.”</p><p>In mid-April, dozens of farmers and supporters gathered at the statehouse in Augusta to voice their frustration, emphasizing the tight margins most farms operate on and the important role government contracts can play.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Training Farmers</strong></h3><p>Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport was one of the organizations receiving funds through the now-cancelled Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which it used to help farmers in 22 states learn about conservation resources and develop resilient practices.&nbsp;</p><p>The farm is in the third year of a five-year, $35 million agreement and has received $7 million to date. It expects to receive some additional funds for costs incurred through mid-April, but no later.&nbsp;</p><p>The center’s executive director Dave Herring said they have furloughed nine staff this month in light of the cuts, and in total will lose nearly a quarter of their staff.</p><p>“Every type of farming operation, big and small … they’re being impacted,” Herring said. “This is a huge lost opportunity for farmers across the country.”</p><p>Herring said that federal grants account for nearly two-thirds of the center’s budget.</p><p>“Things like training farmers, performing research, providing technical assistance to farmers, these are at the core of our programs and the things that we do and certainly the federal government has been a really trusted and important partner up until January 20th,” Herring said. “That’s funding (and) support for them to improve their practices that they’re not going to receive.”</p><p>There were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pcsc-state-fact-sheet-me.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">16 programs</a>&nbsp;in Maine receiving money through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, including Wolfe’s Neck Center and the New England Forestry Foundation.</p><p>The USDA has said select projects can continue if they demonstrate that enough of the funds are going to farmers. Wolfe’s Neck Center is currently evaluating whether it will apply for the new program.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>‘A Small Lifeline’</strong></h3><p>Seth Kroeck is the owner and manager of Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick, which cultivates organic produce for wholesale buyers like Whole Foods. The farm is home to Little Bluestem, a natural habitat where blueberries grow wild that is “critically imperiled.”&nbsp;</p><p>Cold snaps are something farmers used to experience once a century, Kroeck said. But his farm has suffered from two late-frost cold snaps in just five years, destroying entire crops of wild blueberries.</p><p>The farm receives two grants from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The first allocated $50,000 over the course of four years to purchase wood chips to cool the blueberry crops, and the second was for $37,000 over the same period to install windbreaks and pollinator strips.</p><p>“These programs … are a small lifeline,” Kroeck said. “Farmers have one of the most high risk businesses out there, in addition to a market that supplies really low margins.”</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/themainemonitor.org/nitropack_static/NwhwSfJLhPZNfPlBOkPVmsiHgZhtCazP/assets/images/optimized/rev-381ad45/themainemonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Sinsi-family-table.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="The Sinsi family gathers around a table during a meal." class="wp-image-35795"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Clockwise from left: Addie, Vinka, and their parents Seren and Steve Sinisi as morning light reaches their kitchen. (Photo by Fred J. Field)</figcaption></figure><p>Improving the soil and climate resiliency leads to higher crop production and helps the natural ecosystem of the farm, Kroeck said. The fact that the USDA grants are in limbo makes continuing this work more difficult.</p><p>“It really leaves farmers guessing, holding the bag, and trying their best to fulfill their end of the contract,” Kroeck said.</p><p>Ultimately, he said losing these funds will impact the prices Mainers have to pay at the store.</p><p>“It’s going to affect our bottom line. It’s going to affect what we need to charge for food,” Kroeck said. “There’s going to be no other results.”</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Pushing Back</strong></h3><p>Representative Chellie Pingree, who has an organic farm on North Haven, marched with farmers at the rally in Augusta earlier this month. She spoke out strongly against the cuts and said she would continue advocating for farmers in Washington.</p><p>“We’ve also lost a tremendous amount of staffing because of this unelected billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE,” Rep. Pingree said at the rally. “They’re talking and said, ‘We’re going to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.’ Well, I don’t think anything you’ve heard about today is waste, fraud and abuse. None of it.”</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/themainemonitor.org/nitropack_static/NwhwSfJLhPZNfPlBOkPVmsiHgZhtCazP/assets/images/optimized/rev-381ad45/themainemonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USDA-funding-cuts-signs.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="A crowd of demonstrators at a rally to restore cut USDA funding." class="wp-image-35787"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The rally against USDA cuts in Augusta on April 16 included a tractor brigade and was attended by farmers, gardeners and supporters. (Photo by Adrienne Washington)</figcaption></figure><p>Maine has seen 20 percent of its local USDA staff cut, according to Alexander.</p><p>Senator Angus King has cosponsored a bill that would release federal funding for all contracts previously agreed to by USDA.&nbsp;</p><p>“Farmers are an original building block of our state economy, providing jobs and a secure food source for thousands of people in Maine and across the northeast,” King said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-working-to-get-maine-farmers-expected-federal-investments-to-sustain-operations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a statement</a>. “The Honor Farmer Contracts Act would ensure that Maine’s farmers receive the federal funding from all signed agreements and contracts as quickly as possible to prevent any operations from having to shut down.”</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/themainemonitor.org/nitropack_static/NwhwSfJLhPZNfPlBOkPVmsiHgZhtCazP/assets/images/optimized/rev-381ad45/themainemonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Steve-Sinisi-wipes-tear.jpg?w=780&#038;ssl=1" alt="Steve Sinsi wipes a tear from his eye." class="wp-image-35790"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Steve Sinisi wipes away a tear as he speaks of his late grandmother, Vinka. “Her strength, her ability to come here with nothing and build a future. We would not have a farm without her,” he said. (Photo by Fred J. Field)</figcaption></figure></div><p>Sinisi, at Old Crow Ranch, said he was debating whether or not to speak out against the cuts.</p><p>But he and his wife agreed that it’s a privilege that they’re able to do so. Other farmers they know, especially migrant workers, didn’t even feel safe enough to attend the rally, let alone speak out.</p><p>“You feel like you’re going to put a target on yourself,” he said. “It’s absolutely awful.”</p><p>Sinisi said he has always been inspired by his grandmother, an immigrant who fled an abusive marriage in war-torn Croatia in search of a better life.</p><p>When she passed away, he used the money she left to him to buy a tractor, the first piece of equipment he had on the farm.</p><p>“She brought us to a place of freedom,” he said, then expressed dismay over how things have changed. “I am just so grateful that grandma is not here to see it.”</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p><em>Adrienne Washington is a Roy W. Howard fellow and rural communities reporter for The Maine Monitor.</em></p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/usda-funding-uncertainty-puts-maine-farmers-in-a-bind/2025/05/06/">USDA Funding Uncertainty Puts Maine Farmers in a Bind</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  219. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  222. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229422</post-id> </item>
  223. <item>
  224. <title>Study: Drone Technology Has Potential to Help Rural Healthcare</title>
  225. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/study-drone-technology-has-potential-to-help-rural-healthcare/2025/05/05/</link>
  226. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/study-drone-technology-has-potential-to-help-rural-healthcare/2025/05/05/#respond</comments>
  228. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Liz Carey]]></dc:creator>
  229. <pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  230. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  231. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=228253</guid>
  232.  
  233. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="678" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C503&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C858&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1017&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1357&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C795&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C517&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C265&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C468&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  234. <p>A study released in December of 2024 has found that drones not only can provide rural residents with access to healthcare resources, but that rural people are eager to embrace the new technology. Researcher Ellen Hahn, associate director of AppalTRuST in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, was on the research team for the [&#8230;]</p>
  235. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/study-drone-technology-has-potential-to-help-rural-healthcare/2025/05/05/">Study: Drone Technology Has Potential to Help Rural Healthcare</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  236. ]]></description>
  237. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="678" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C503&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C858&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1017&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1357&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C795&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C517&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C265&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C468&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP17103740962363-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>A study released in December of 2024 has found that drones not only can provide rural residents with access to healthcare resources, but that rural people are eager to embrace the new technology.</p><p>Researcher Ellen Hahn, associate director of AppalTRuST in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, was on the research team for<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15248399241300577"> the study that looked at drone delivery</a> of healthcare resources to Appalachian patients that was recently published in Health Promotion Practice. Although the study was limited, she said, it showed that the concept could work.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>“We found that it was safe to use drones,” Hahn said. “Some of the research around drones and healthcare delivery says that people are kind of hesitant or skeptical, and we wondered what will a group of clients think? Well, they were very interested. They embraced it. Plus, the materials that we delivered to them by drone were things they didn&#8217;t have access to.”</p><p>Hahn said the recently published study, conducted in 2020, wanted to see if drones could work in hard-to-reach areas such as remote parts of the Appalachian mountains.&nbsp;</p><p>The study involved partnerships with Kentucky Homeplace, a community health worker program that provides medical and social assistance to rural residents they might not otherwise have had access to; the University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health; and USA Drone Port in Hazard, Kentucky. The study focused on delivering personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p><p>Together with leaders in the Perry County Wellness Coalition, the team worked out a system to deliver PPE such as face masks to Kentucky Homeplace clients in Perry and Knott counties in rural southeastern Kentucky, with a combined population of about 42,000.</p><p>“A lot of these participants, because they have chronic illness, are homebound anyway,” Hahn said. “I thought it sounded interesting and could have a ripple effect, particularly during flooding and other disasters. The question was, could we use drones to get people what they needed when they can’t get things?”</p><p>After an initial consultation with their community healthcare workers about the program, the clients were able to tell workers where on their properties the drone could drop the delivery.</p><p>“As you can imagine, safety issues with power lines and trees and the weather were an issue, and we started this project in December (2020), so it was really winter into spring months,” Hahn said.&nbsp;</p><p>“We had to see how it would work. The community health workers had to delay it because of weather or power lines, or trees a few times, but it was a close collaboration with the community health workers who were trained as visual observers.”</p><p>Once patients received the delivery, research found they were more likely to use the PPE. Before the study, only 60% of patients said they wore a mask every day. After the drone delivery, 90% reported wearing a mask every day. And those reporting they would not go out in public without a mask went up ten percent after delivery. Of the study’s participants, 60% said they’d be willing to receive items via drone again, and 80% said they would like to schedule future deliveries of PPE items by drone at the end of the study.</p><p>The group also learned how to navigate the safety issues surrounding drones. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations require that drones cannot fly beyond visual sight of the operator and colleagues, which requires coordination of community healthcare workers and drone pilots. Also, USA Drone Port tested various basket weights and different basket materials to determine how to successfully make deliveries, according to the study.</p><p>Increasingly, medical officials and drone operators around the country are exploring how to use drones to get prescriptions and other healthcare resources to people in rural communities.&nbsp;</p><p>In Maryland, a<a href="https://today.umd.edu/umd-to-develop-drone-delivery-program-for-patients-on-rural-island"> University of Maryland team</a> is testing using drones to get prescriptions to remote areas like Smith Island, a community ten miles west of the mainland where its nearly 200 residents are mostly older and homebound.</p><p>Their prescriptions are generally delivered by ferry, which only runs once a day, weather permitting. Officials on the island said that getting prescriptions becomes even more challenging when the water freezes.</p><p>“When the ice is heavy, it can take six hours to get there—if you can go at all,” Eddie Somers, a retired fishing boat captain and official on the island, said in a statement. Sometimes, he noted, it’s necessary to use an ice-breaking boat to get prescriptions to those in need.</p><p>John Slaughter, a retired Navy helicopter pilot, runs the University of Maryland’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Command and heard about the island’s issues during a talk with a Maryland doctor. Two of the doctor’s patients had run out of medicines during a freeze, which required the state to dispatch the medications in a helicopter. Slaughter thought the jobs could have been done with a drone.</p><p>“That helicopter costs thousands of dollars an hour to operate when you consider fuel, maintenance, flight crew, and ground crew,” Slaughter said in a press release</p><p>In November of 2024, the university was awarded a $1.76 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a drone operation to get medical shipments to rural residents in that state.</p><p>Last year, a similar project in Texas had<a href="https://dailyyonder.com/project-tests-drones-for-rural-health-care/2024/02/21/"> rural practitioners work with Texas Tech</a> University Health Sciences Center to test drone delivery of medical supplies to rural areas of that state. And in Michigan, <a href="https://www.secondwavemedia.com/rural-innovation-exchange/devnews/AAM-grants-24.aspx">an economic development organization</a> headed a partnership to test drone delivery of medical supplies and other healthcare needs to residents in rural Michigan.</p><p>Hahn said her team’s research shows that drones can have an impact on the health of rural residents.</p><p>“It was a small study, but we did see a significant impact in people reporting access to resources that they didn’t have, which is really what we were going after,” she said.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/study-drone-technology-has-potential-to-help-rural-healthcare/2025/05/05/">Study: Drone Technology Has Potential to Help Rural Healthcare</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  246. <title>In Rural Nebraska, It’s Hard to Find an Attorney. It’s Going to Get Much Harder.</title>
  247. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-nebraska-its-hard-to-find-an-attorney-its-going-to-get-much-harder/2025/05/05/</link>
  248. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-nebraska-its-hard-to-find-an-attorney-its-going-to-get-much-harder/2025/05/05/#respond</comments>
  250. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Shelby Rickert / Flatwater Free Press]]></dc:creator>
  251. <pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  252. <category><![CDATA[Community & Economic Development]]></category>
  253. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  254. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  255. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229399</guid>
  256.  
  257. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?w=2240&amp;ssl=1 2240w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  258. <p>This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press. Carie Scoggan remembers how a Dawes County district judge loomed over her like a holy figure, as her shaking hands grasped a stack of overdue paperwork she couldn’t make sense of. Legal document after legal document had landed in her mailbox over the previous two and [&#8230;]</p>
  259. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-nebraska-its-hard-to-find-an-attorney-its-going-to-get-much-harder/2025/05/05/">In Rural Nebraska, It’s Hard to Find an Attorney. It’s Going to Get Much Harder.</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  260. ]]></description>
  261. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?w=2240&amp;ssl=1 2240w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Courtroom-2240x1493-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p class="has-text-align-center"><em>This story was originally published by <a href="https://flatwaterfreepress.org/in-rural-nebraska-its-hard-to-find-an-attorney-its-going-to-get-much-harder/">Flatwater Free Press</a></em>.</p><p>Carie Scoggan remembers how a Dawes County district judge loomed over her like a holy figure, as her shaking hands grasped a stack of overdue paperwork she couldn’t make sense of.</p><p>Legal document after legal document had landed in her mailbox over the previous two and a half months as part of her divorce proceedings. She cried every time.</p><p>In court, she watched as others went before the judge. When her turn came, she moved toward the front of the room, her blond hair swinging as she followed the same route.&nbsp;</p><p>The judge asked about the overdue paperwork. Scoggan remembers not being able to string together a sentence. She was paralyzed with fear.</p><p>The end of Scoggan’s marriage had turned messy. Her husband froze her assets, Scoggan said, and her attorney told her she would be dropping her as a client due to Scoggan’s inability to pay her retainer fees — leaving her with nowhere to turn as the legal documents piled up.&nbsp;</p><p>“When you are out there by yourself and you’re trying to navigate waters that you’ve never been in before, it can be very hard, and the court system is very intimidating,” Scoggan said. “When you have an attorney on your side, you feel like you have this protection force field.”</p><p>That protection is becoming increasingly hard for Nebraskans living in more rural counties to access.&nbsp;</p><p>About a third of Nebraska’s 93 counties have three or fewer active attorneys residing and practicing in them. Twelve counties don’t have a single one, according to the Nebraska State Bar Association.</p><p>For attorneys, this means heavier caseloads and longer travel times. Judges must take on extra duties to streamline an already complicated process.&nbsp;</p><p>Clients, even those with urgent cases, have to wait for help. Others resort to meeting with lawyers online.&nbsp;</p><p>These legal deserts affect those involved in civil cases, like Scoggan’s, criminal cases where the defendant is entitled to legal representation and child welfare cases where attorneys are appointed to work in the best interest of minors.</p><p>Nonprofits and other programs are trying to fill the gaps. The state bar has several incentive programs, and a newly approved program at the University of Nebraska College of Law is working to train future attorneys in juvenile law, an area with a dire shortage of attorneys in rural Nebraska.&nbsp;</p><p>Even with those efforts, the problem will likely worsen in the coming years as a wave of attorneys approaches retirement age, according to the state bar.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Legal Aid Stretched Thin</h3><p>Early in Derek Weimer’s 15-year career as a district court judge in Cheyenne County, he began to expect one phrase from civil litigants in his courtroom: “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.”</p><p>He quickly realized these people — who had no attorney and represented themselves — needed extra help.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, Weimer’s afternoons on the bench often consist of educating self-represented litigants, overseeing extra hearings and taking time at the end of regularly scheduled hearings to go through to-do lists.</p><p>When people don’t know much about how the legal system works, it can be intimidating, he said.</p><p>“It is sort of the equivalent of walking into an operating room and hoping that you can figure out which instrument to pick up,” Weimer said.</p><p>Weimer has made peace with having more work to do on the bench. He sees it as part of his job, he said, though it can create difficulties. Even small mistakes can cause delays, which can delay the entire system.</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" height="520" width="780" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/flatwaterfreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Judge-Derek-Weimer-1024x683.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-8480"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Judge Derek Wimer says he has grown accustomed to helping litigants representing themselves in court, which can be an intimidating experience. “It is sort of the equivalent of walking into an operating room and hoping that you can figure out which instrument to pick up.” (Photo by Irene North / Flatwater Free Press)</figcaption></figure><p>Many of the private attorneys or lawyers who work criminal cases in Weimer’s court come from outside of Cheyenne County.</p><p>Heavy workloads for the few attorneys in an area can affect the quality of representation in court, especially when defendants are entitled to legal representation.&nbsp;</p><p>“The court doesn’t get to just not appoint anybody,” said Madeline Smith, an attorney in Broken Bow.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Greater Pressure, Fewer Resources</h3><p>Some days, Smith can’t help but question how effective she is in her job as a guardian ad litem — essentially a legal advocate for kids whose well-being is in question.</p><p>After dropping her toddler off at day care, Smith might spend&nbsp;six hours on the road before making it back home to her family in the evening.&nbsp;</p><p>It makes long days even longer, and a taxing job more taxing. Many of the children Smith represents come from difficult home lives. Some are placed in foster homes.&nbsp;</p><p>“My biggest worry, in any case, is when this kid’s old enough to look back on this, are they going to feel like the system worked for them or did it fail? And so I always kind of have that in the background of my mind,” Smith said.&nbsp;</p><p>The pressure is greatest in cases that are far away.</p><p>Smith can keep her finger on the pulse of a case when it’s local. She can attend school conferences and coordinate home visits in about a month, which allows her to make better observations and recommendations.</p><p>But Cherry County,&nbsp;where Smith has cases, is more than 100 miles from Broken Bow. In one of those cases, children were placed in Douglas County, nearly 200 miles from Broken Bow.</p><p>In yet another case, Smith must travel nearly 200 miles west to Box Butte County.</p><p>In-home visits are a crucial part of Smith’s job. It took her four months to coordinate the Cherry County visits.&nbsp;</p><p>The extended days add to her struggles balancing work and life, Smith said.&nbsp;</p><p>It means working well into the night after she puts her child to bed, and heading into the office on Saturdays to hold meetings that didn’t fit into her hectic weekday schedule.&nbsp;</p><p>Attorneys in smaller communities also struggle to access the same services their clients may seek, such as mental health care.&nbsp;</p><p>“Once you’re outside of the major population hubs in the state, we could use more lawyers,” Weimer said. “But we could use more doctors. We could use more teachers. We could use more accountants. There are folks in those lines of work that we just need more of in these rural communities.”</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Inevitable Difficulties</h3><p>Scoggan left the courtroom in March feeling hopeless.</p><p>That changed when a representative from the <a href="https://www.dovesprogram.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOVES program</a>, a nonprofit providing sexual, domestic and dating violence services in nine Panhandle counties, approached her in the hall outside of the courtroom.</p><p>DOVES helped her pay the retainer for an attorney. It provided her relief.&nbsp;</p><p>“Finally having an attorney that sits down with me and says, ‘Yes, I will accept this small retainer that DOVES will pay for you, and I will give you legal aid up until your divorce is final,’ is so calming. It’s unbelievable,” Scoggan said. “It took so much weight off my shoulders.”</p><p>Nevertheless, there are challenges. Scoggan’s new attorney is 75 miles away in Scottsbluff. Scoggan, who has epilepsy, can’t drive.</p><p>Her meetings have moved to Zoom.</p><p>“You don’t get that interpersonal connection. … And it seems like you become more acquainted with that person, and you can become more comfortable with them,” Scoggan said.&nbsp;</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft"><img data-recalc-dims="1" height="919" width="780" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/flatwaterfreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Doves-1-scaled-e1745552320493-869x1024.jpg?resize=780%2C919&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-8479"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Hilary Wasserburger, director of DOVES. (Photo courtesy of DOVES)</figcaption></figure></div><p>DOVES regularly works with local attorneys who help clients with paperwork and set up payment plans, said Hilary Wasserburger, DOVES’ director.</p><p>The process puts more work on local attorneys. To ease that burden, DOVES in 2023 received funding to hire an in-house attorney and a paralegal. It started advertising for the jobs in October.</p><p>As of March, they’d received only two applications: Law school students who hadn’t yet graduated.</p><p>DOVES isn’t alone in this struggle, Wasserburger said. Local, private law firms that would offer higher pay and better benefits in the Panhandle are having the same problem.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading">Closing the Gaps</h3><p>Michelle Paxton spent around five years as a prosecutor in Douglas and Lancaster counties before joining the University of Nebraska College of Law in 2017.&nbsp;</p><p>As a prosecutor, she specialized in juvenile law and domestic violence. The move to academia revealed blind spots she’d had during her time as a prosecutor.</p><p>“You’re in a position of power in decision-making and influencing power. And here I was acting in that way, and I didn’t have command of so many subjects like substance use, mental health, trauma … all of this, no idea about any of it,” Paxton said. “And I think what a disservice I did in those cases.”</p><p>In 2021, Paxton helped launch the&nbsp;<a href="https://law.unl.edu/childrens-justice-attorney-education/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Children’s Justice Attorney Education Program</a>. The program set out to train students to better handle non-legal subjects that come up while working in juvenile court.</p><p>It also placed law school students in practices across the state, including in rural areas, with the hope that some will return after graduation.</p><p>The state bar association has also established programs to build up Nebraska’s attorney workforce.</p><p>Through its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nebar.com/page/RPI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rural Practice Initiative</a>, created in 2013, the association connects rural employers with law students and lawyers.&nbsp;</p><p>The state bar also supports a student loan relief program for attorneys who practice in rural Nebraska, as well as a program that paves the way for college students from Greater Nebraska to receive a degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln.</p><p>All of these efforts are working against the clock.</p><p>A total of 108 attorneys will be 70 years of age or older in 2027, according to state bar projections. That’s 30% of the current attorney workforce in rural counties.</p><p>Garfield, Greeley, Kimball and Rock counties, all with only one active attorney as of 2022, could lose those attorneys to retirement by 2027, according to the state bar.</p><figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-recalc-dims="1" height="490" width="780" decoding="async" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/flatwaterfreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Cheyenne-County-Court-1-1024x643.jpg?resize=780%2C490&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-8477"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Many of the lawyers who work criminal cases in Cheyenne County come from outside of the county. About a third of Nebraska’s 93 counties have three or fewer active attorneys residing and practicing in them. (Photo by Irene North / Flatwater Free Press)</figcaption></figure><p>Weimer said Cheyenne County has two private firms, one of which only works in contractual law, not the court system. Its public defender is nearing retirement age, as are the private attorneys who represent clients in court.</p><p>In a rare bright spot, the University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents earlier this month voted to merge the attorney education program with another clinic focused on children’s justice issues.</p><p>The merger will allow Paxton and others to continue research, data dissemination and to provide access to legal representation, she said.</p><p>“The center leverages us to really be a model for a nation, because Nebraska is one of many states with legal deserts, and what we’re doing is really moving the needle,” Paxton said.</p><p>Scoggan is still navigating her divorce. She’s continuing to meet with her attorney via Zoom and collecting all the confusing paperwork she still can’t understand.&nbsp;</p><p>“I have friends and stuff that I could find that would take me to meet with her,” Scoggan said, “but I don’t want to be a burden on other people.”</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-nebraska-its-hard-to-find-an-attorney-its-going-to-get-much-harder/2025/05/05/">In Rural Nebraska, It’s Hard to Find an Attorney. It’s Going to Get Much Harder.</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  268. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229399</post-id> </item>
  269. <item>
  270. <title>45 Degrees North: Freezer Culture</title>
  271. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-freezer-culture/2025/05/02/</link>
  272. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-freezer-culture/2025/05/02/#respond</comments>
  274. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Donna Kallner]]></dc:creator>
  275. <pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  276. <category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
  277. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  278. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=228211</guid>
  279.  
  280. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1151&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  281. <p>My BS barometer redlined recently at a tone-deaf email that started with “help us understand” and ended by suggesting an amount I should donate to a group that admittedly has not grasped what I think or why. Being overly hot under the collar, I stuck my head in the freezer to cool off while pulling [&#8230;]</p>
  282. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-freezer-culture/2025/05/02/">45 Degrees North: Freezer Culture</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  283. ]]></description>
  284. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1151&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20250415_114533400_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>My BS barometer redlined recently at a tone-deaf email that started with “help us understand” and ended by suggesting an amount I should donate to a group that admittedly has not grasped what I think or why. Being overly hot under the collar, I stuck my head in the freezer to cool off while pulling out something to thaw for supper the next day.&nbsp;</p><p>That&#8217;s when it occurred to me: I&#8217;m not a demographic; I&#8217;m a rural Freezer Culture warrior.</p><p>Of course, I&#8217;m a mystery to people who pass six supermarkets on their way home from work, who have a dozen choices of retailers and services that will deliver groceries to their doorstep any day of the week, and who have the economic resources to embrace options.&nbsp;</p><p>Out here, on the other hand, it&#8217;s easier and more affordable to have stuff in the freezer and habits that include planning, thawing, and preparing meals every blessed day. A freezer isn&#8217;t just a home appliance: It&#8217;s a cultural icon. For many rural families, Freezer Culture is a household management psychology, so different from how people elsewhere live that it represents a <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_divide">cultural divide</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>To help bridge that divide, here are some things you should know about rural Freezer Culture.</p><p><strong>Chest vs. Upright. </strong>An upright freezer looks like a refrigerator, with a door that opens in front, and is often considered more convenient to use (but not by me). A chest freezer is wider and not as tall, box-like with a hinged lid on top. We have a 50-year-old upright in the basement that holds mostly veggies and fruits. Upstairs, an 11-cubic-foot chest freezer is the largest capacity unit that would fit in the available space in our laundry room with enough clearance for ventilation. That&#8217;s where we store meat, poultry, and fish. That freezer is next to an exterior door through which we can run an extension cord to a gas-powered portable generator if necessary during an extended power outage – and those are a fact of life out here.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Top Of The Fridge.</strong> People who haven&#8217;t lived in a culture where <em>chest or upright</em> is a meaningful phrase may think a small freezer compartment in the fridge is sufficient. It&#8217;s certainly important: That&#8217;s for ice cream, pizzas, containers of soup and spaghetti sauce, veggies and fruits you expect to use soon, pinto beans and garbanzos portioned out the last time you cooked dry beans, and frozen sticks of slice-and-bake sourdough dog biscuits (way cheaper than store-bought). Some people even keep ice trays there. And when we anticipate weather that might result in an extended power outage, I might move a few things to that small freezer compartment so I can access them without opening either of the big freezers.</p><p><strong>Power Outages.</strong> A recent ice storm dropped trees onto power lines. We felt lucky to get restoration in just 48 hours, and never had to hook up the generator. A full chest freezer can maintain a safe temperature for several days if you don&#8217;t open it.&nbsp;</p><p>But a longer outage can cost a rural family dearly. Many people I know have a plan for canning meat as quickly as possible before it spoils (doable if you have a gas rangetop and a pressure canner). Others load ice chests and hope that family or friends with power and freezer space can foster food for a while.&nbsp;</p><p>Someone who isn&#8217;t home or is too busy to can or relocate their freezer contents can lose everything. If you&#8217;ve shopped for groceries lately, you can imagine the monetary loss that represents. Now imagine an extra concern for rural families: Many of us have to transport our own trash to a municipal waste handling center. So, after an extended power outage, making time to haul away spoiled food is a priority before stinking bags attract skunks and bears.</p><p>And yet, rural freezer culture supports taking that risk. After all, I risk an increase in gas prices and drivers who pass on the double yellow every time I make the 52-mile round trip to a supermarket. I risk the impacts of inflation, tariffs, transportation costs, worker shortages at meat packing facilities, decreased availability due to drought, and panic buying for whatever reason that clears supermarket shelves. Having food in the freezer feels pretty secure in comparison.</p><p><strong>A Treasure Chest. </strong>Our chest freezer was full when we lost power in that recent ice storm. We had just purchased a quarter of beef. For those who have only purchased cuts from a supermarket meat case, here&#8217;s what that means: We buy direct from the farmer, but our two-person household can&#8217;t afford and doesn&#8217;t need all the meat from one cow. So we and three other families each commit to take a quarter of that. We pay the farmer for our share of the cow, and we pay a locker plant for butchering and packaging the meat. It&#8217;s frozen when we pick it up. It&#8217;s a big expense all at once, but it reduces our weekly grocery bill, and the money stays in our community. And we get locally grown roasts and steaks for the same price per pound as a hamburger.&nbsp;</p><p>Our freezer also contains chickens that our neighbor raises (<a href="https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-many-hands-rural-style/2024/08/09/">we help with butchering</a>), game birds (my husband hunts), fish he catches, venison, and other game gifted by neighbors. Occasionally, I buy a whole pork loin when it&#8217;s on sale and slice it up myself into meal-size portions to freeze. I buy bacon and breakfast sausage when they&#8217;re on sale. But the supermarket gets very little of our meat budget.</p><p><strong>Meal Planning.</strong> Instead of picking options from the meat case at the store, I shop the freezer a couple of times a week. My selections go into a big stainless steel bowl <a href="https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/freeze-general-information/thawing-and-preparing-foods-for-serving/">in the refrigerator to thaw</a>. It can take a couple of days for a 1.5-pound block of ground beef to thaw in the fridge. But at 40°F, any bacteria present when the food was frozen have less opportunity to multiply than they would thawing at room temperature on the counter. And if something comes up and my planning goes sideways, I can wait another day or two to prepare something thawed in the fridge.</p><p>I learned meal planning from my mother, who worked full-time but also shopped her freezer and pantry. She wore out at least one old-school pressure cooker, turning tough cuts from butchered dairy cows into tender, delicious meals. Many of my rural friends swear by the modern “instant pot” for making quick work of meal preparation. I tend to prefer the slow route of throwing thawed meat and veggies into a crock pot, or a quick sear on the stovetop in a cast iron pan. And I love any meal plan that produces leftovers – a.k.a a night of minimal prep and clean-up.&nbsp;</p><p>One thing I did not learn from my mother was about frozen pizza. My husband was a 39-year-old bachelor when I married him. Bill could make a great meatloaf, but also knew how to take care of himself when that wasn&#8217;t possible. When you live where no pizzeria delivers, having pizza and ice cream in the freezer sure beats cold cereal for supper. I&#8217;m sure many rural parents feel the same way about frozen chicken nuggets.</p><p><strong>Freezer Culture Families.</strong> Here&#8217;s another thing that might help others better understand people who live in a freezer culture: We know we&#8217;re lucky. Lucky to have the space for those freezers. Lucky to have their contents, whether it&#8217;s food we raised ourselves, food we hunted or fished ourselves, or food we purchased.</p><p>A friend of mine has five freezers. That might sound like a lot for a two-person household. But most of us lucky enough to have a treasure chest of frozen food don&#8217;t hoard it all. We share with friends and family. Sending your adult children and grandchildren off with a few bags of frozen burger meat is a way to help support them in tough times and in good times.</p><p>Maybe we can&#8217;t fill their gas tanks, but we can help fill their bellies.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p><em>Donna Kallner writes from Langlade County in rural northern Wisconsin.&nbsp;</em></p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-freezer-culture/2025/05/02/">45 Degrees North: Freezer Culture</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  293. <title>Q&#038;A: Making a Home in a Region Founded on Displacement</title>
  294. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-making-a-home-in-a-region-founded-on-displacement/2025/05/02/</link>
  295. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-making-a-home-in-a-region-founded-on-displacement/2025/05/02/#respond</comments>
  297. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Will Wright]]></dc:creator>
  298. <pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  299. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  300. <category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
  301. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229445</guid>
  302.  
  303. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?w=1366&amp;ssl=1 1366w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  304. <p>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&#38;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. [&#8230;]</p>
  305. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-making-a-home-in-a-region-founded-on-displacement/2025/05/02/">Q&amp;A: Making a Home in a Region Founded on Displacement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  306. ]]></description>
  307. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?w=1366&amp;ssl=1 1366w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Untitled-design.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p><em>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/">Path Finders</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can <a href="#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.</em></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/><p>Where are we from? For many people, the question is flawed from the outset. Looking back into our family histories, we find that our ancestors moved all over the place. They moved sometimes for work, sometimes for better weather, and sometimes because they had no other choice. Many of us come from migration.</p><p>The first account in “Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia” comes from Claudine Katete, a Rwandan woman who spent twenty years walking to and living in refugee camps in Africa before moving to the United States in 2014. She’s now pursuing a degree at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia, not far from the West Virginia border. </p><p><a href="https://www.thevirginiashop.org/product/beginning-again-edited-by-katrina-m-powell/2397" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“Beginning Again”</a> is an oral history project that gives us 12 stories of people who ended up in Appalachia for one reason or another — all told in their own words. Some, like Katete, come from far away. Others are from the region. But all their stories teach us about movement and migration: why people move, how they adapt, and how they’re treated when they arrive in a new place.</p><p>The book teaches us, too, about what makes Appalachia unique, and why someone from the hills of rural Virginia and someone from rural Sudan might have more in common than you’d expect. </p><p>Katrina M. Powell is a professor of rhetoric and writing at Virginia Tech, and the founding director of the university’s Center for Refugee, Migrant and Displacement Studies. She edited “Beginning Again” and in this interview reflects on what the book can teach us about each other, and ourselves.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/><p class="has-text-align-center"><em>This interview was edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p><strong>Will Wright, The Daily Yonder: The stories in “Beginning Again” are really incredible. There are people who come to Appalachia from so many different circumstances — people from Rwanda, Syria, Sudan — and there are also people from the U.S. and from Appalachia included in the book. Did you notice any shared experiences, even as people came from such different places?</strong></p><div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex"><div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="557" height="780" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Katrina-Powell.jpg?resize=557%2C780&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-228322" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Katrina-Powell.jpg?w=557&amp;ssl=1 557w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Katrina-Powell.jpg?resize=543%2C760&amp;ssl=1 543w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Katrina-Powell.jpg?resize=400%2C560&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Katrina-Powell.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px" /></figure></div>
  308.  
  309. <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow"><p><strong>Katrina M. Powell: </strong>Yes, and this is one of the really exciting things about putting these narratives together: you can see them right next to each other. You see the commonality, either with forced relocation or decisions to move in moments of crisis. People who are fleeing from civil unrest or war really want safety and security for their family, and want to work and make a living and contribute to their communities. Folks who are languishing in refugee camps for decades, they want education. In Appalachia you’ve seen displacement from <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/eminent_domain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eminent domain law</a>, from flooding, from the closing of coal mines.</p></div></div><p>Whatever the displacement moment is, people really want to protect their families, educate their children, have healthcare. Those are some of the commonalities.</p><p>Once someone leaves a situation, resettling is a whole other story. I think there&#8217;s a misconception sometimes that once you get to the United States, everything will be fine, but we see that’s not always the case.</p><p><strong>DY: There’s a story about a woman from Syria that illustrates just how taxing the resettlement process is. When she arrived with her family, their housing in the U.S. was terrible. There were mice running around and she couldn&#8217;t figure out who to talk to, and no one who was supposed to be helping her was doing anything. But there were people in the community who ended up coming in and helping her, right? One of the themes of the book is understanding who your neighbors are, and what it means to be neighborly.</strong></p><p><strong>KP:</strong> Yeah, I think it&#8217;s absolutely one of the themes. Amal, the Syrian woman, has gone through some really interesting phases. She&#8217;s been here since 2017 and now she&#8217;s a leader in the community and helps new people resettle, and she&#8217;s fluent in English. </p><p>There’s another story from a man named Mekyah, whose family has been in Appalachia for generations. He and a lot of young people in Appalachia are working with <a href="https://www.thestayproject.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Stay Project</a>, trying to figure out how, if there&#8217;s not a lot of economic opportunity in the area, how can we make it happen. I think there’s a stereotype that African Americans don’t want to live in Appalachia, and he really dispels that stereotype. He wants to live here. He and his friends want to stay where they grew up, where their grandparents and great-grandparents lived. But being able to find good-paying employment is really difficult. So he’s trying to make those economic opportunities for him and his peers.</p><p><strong>DY:</strong> <strong>The book highlights diversity in Appalachia — in a place where people from the outside sometimes assume that there isn&#8217;t diversity. Mekyah tells us about good and bad things as a Black person in Appalachia. There’s welcoming, but there&#8217;s also prejudice. I was curious about who you see as your primary audience for this book. Is your goal to allow people from the outside to learn about Appalachia, or do you want people from within Appalachia to learn about themselves and their communities?</strong></p><p><strong>KP:</strong> I hope people who are not familiar with Appalachia realize how diverse it is, how wonderful it is, and particularly that it has always been a place of mobility. This country was founded on displacement. There&#8217;s a lot of press about poverty and strife and the coal mines. And those things aren&#8217;t necessarily untrue. But there&#8217;s also a lot of joy and beauty and neighborliness and diversity, and I think that doesn&#8217;t get as much popular press.</p><p>But primarily, I hope that Appalachians see themselves in the book and hear themselves in the book. I hope that people feel seen and heard, and reflected in the stories that are here. These are just 12 narratives of thousands and thousands of people who live in the area who&#8217;ve either lived here for generations or have moved more recently. </p><p><strong>DY:</strong> <strong>Let’s talk about the idea of Appalachia as a place of migration. We saw major flooding in North Carolina last year, and before that we saw flooding in East Kentucky that displaced thousands of people. This book shows that someone from rural Sudan and rural Appalachia can have way more in common than you&#8217;d think in terms of displacement.</strong></p><p><strong>KP: </strong>Your question really gets at the impetus of my research generally. I grew up in Virginia near Shenandoah National Park and everything I was hearing in the media or reading in the history books about people who had been displaced from Shenandoah did not match with what I knew to be true from living near and around those people. And so when you talk about the millions and millions of people who are displaced right now, that number is so big. I think people get overwhelmed. There’s this idea of “What can we possibly do?” The millions and millions of displaced people just become a number and a statistic. And so by pointing out this common ground, I hope people can see that, first of all, we are all subject to forced displacement in some way. Then, how might we be able to help even just one person who&#8217;s been displaced, either by volunteering or being a neighbor? There&#8217;s actually lots we can do. And then hopefully, if we&#8217;re ever displaced, someone might return in kind.</p><p>I know this to be true, living in a rural area myself. Neighbors look out for each other, and politics are set aside and people help each other out. In a really difficult political moment, I think sometimes that story takes a backseat.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/><div id="signup" class="wp-block-group is-style-default has-light-gray-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><div style="height:1px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
  310.  
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  312.  
  313. <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:66.66%"><p>This interview first appeared in <strong>Path Finders</strong>, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. </p></div></div>
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  342. </div></div></div><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/><p></p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-making-a-home-in-a-region-founded-on-displacement/2025/05/02/">Q&amp;A: Making a Home in a Region Founded on Displacement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  343. ]]></content:encoded>
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  349. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229445</post-id> </item>
  350. <item>
  351. <title>Dismantling the Head Start Program Will Hurt Rural Families</title>
  352. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/dismantling-the-head-start-program-will-hurt-rural-families/2025/05/01/</link>
  353. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/dismantling-the-head-start-program-will-hurt-rural-families/2025/05/01/#respond</comments>
  355. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Claire Carlson]]></dc:creator>
  356. <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  357. <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
  358. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  359. <category><![CDATA[Yonder Report]]></category>
  360. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229432</guid>
  361.  
  362. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  363. <p>The Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate the federally funded childcare program Head Start will disproportionately harm low-income rural families who could be left without childcare if the service is defunded.&#160; In early April 2025, a draft budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed the Administration’s plan to eliminate Head [&#8230;]</p>
  364. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/dismantling-the-head-start-program-will-hurt-rural-families/2025/05/01/">Dismantling the Head Start Program Will Hurt Rural Families</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  365. ]]></description>
  366. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AP25091781395833-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>The Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate the federally funded childcare program Head Start will disproportionately harm low-income rural families who could be left without childcare if the service is defunded.&nbsp;</p><p>In early April 2025, a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/04/16/hhs-budget-cut-trump/">draft budget proposal</a> for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed the Administration’s plan to eliminate Head Start in favor of “returning education to the States and increasing parental choice.”&nbsp;</p><p>The decision would slash all federal funding to the country’s 3,300 child care and early learning programs that rely on Head Start grants to operate, affecting nearly one million children and thousands of people employed at Head Start facilities across the country.&nbsp;</p><p>A <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-things-to-know-about-head-start/">report</a> from the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy research institute, found that nearly 46% of funded Head Start enrollment slots during the 2023-2024 school year were located in rural congressional districts, meaning rural families rely on the program more than their urban or suburban counterparts. In many of these rural areas, Head Start is the only licensed childcare provider in the community, offering essential early childhood development services and child supervision for working parents.  </p><p>“If those people didn&#8217;t have childcare, there&#8217;s a high chance they wouldn&#8217;t be in the workforce. And it benefits all of us to have people doing jobs that provide services that we all depend on,” said Casey Peeks, senior director of Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress and co-author of the report.&nbsp;</p><p>While Head Start centers are bracing for Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, which is expected to be released mid-May, some have already experienced the fallout of funding and staff cuts at the state and federal level.&nbsp;</p><p>On April 1, 2025, five of Head Start’s 10 regional offices – which administer federal grants – were closed and all staff were laid off at the Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle offices.&nbsp;</p><p>“The chances that all of these different grants are going to get processed in a timely way so these programs can continue to operate seems very unlikely just by the sheer numbers of grants that the [consolidated] offices will have to process,” said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.&nbsp;</p><p>In Central Washington’s lower Yakima Valley, the Head Start grantee Inspire Development Centers had to suspend childcare services in mid-April because they did not receive notice of reimbursement status on their grants before payroll was due. More than 400 children and 70 employees were affected by the temporary closures, and families were left scrambling to find childcare in this largely rural, farmworking region.&nbsp;</p><p>The funds were eventually delivered after widespread media coverage of the closure, but Jorge Castillo, CEO of Inspire Development Centers, told <a href="https://www.nwpb.org/2025/04/22/head-start-programs-reopen-in-central-washington/">Northwest Public Broadcasting</a> that the funding will only get them to the end of their 2025 program year.&nbsp;</p><p>A similar fate awaits other Head Start facilities in Washington. Jessica Lara is the assistant director of Head Start for Educational Service District 105, which serves four primarily rural counties in Central Washington: Yakima, Kittitas, Klickitat, and Grant counties.&nbsp;</p><p>They benefit from Head Start, Early Head Start, and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start grants. Lara said they’re no stranger to slow and delayed payments on these grants, but this is the first time their future has been so uncertain.</p><p>“We live kind of on the edge for how quickly or how long those funds take to come,” Lara said. “It’s a reimbursement process. So we&#8217;ve already spent the funds by the time we&#8217;re asking for them.”</p><p>Their grants last until June 30, 2025. If they don’t get notification by June 1 of grant renewal for the 2026 program year, Lara said they will have to inform families and employees that they will close their Head Start facilities on July 1. “If we receive some sort of notice after that June 1st notification [to families and employees] goes out, we will of course resume services as normal,” Lara said. “But we&#8217;re just kind of living without a lot of faith and trust that the funds are going to come on time, or that they&#8217;ll come at all.”</p><p>The Trump administration wants to eliminate Head Start as part of a larger push to rid education of federal “red tape.” On March 20, 2025, Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/">executive order</a> to dismantle the Department of Education, which Secretary of Education Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/statement-president-trumps-executive-order-return-power-over-education-states-and-local-communities">said</a> would “empower states to take charge and advocate for and implement what is best for students, families, and educators in their communities.” The phrasing is similar to the language the HHS budget proposal used to explain the plan to eliminate Head Start, claiming it will increase parental choice.&nbsp;</p><p>But Lara said this is a complete misunderstanding of the services Head Start provides. Her Head Start district has a policy council made up of parents who approve curricula, outcome goals, and expenses. “We are a community-based, family-driven program, no matter what. And our families have a big say in what happens,” she said.&nbsp;</p><p>Lara has personal experience with the program. She first interacted with Head Start when her son was enrolled at one of their childcare centers while they were homeless. Lara said the resources Head Start provided to her son, who is disabled, and herself were fundamental in getting them back on their feet. She decided to work for Head Start because of everything it provided her and her family.&nbsp;</p><p>“There are so many things that have happened in my life, but I would not be where I am today without the services that Head Start provided in a rural community,” Lara said. “So it&#8217;s devastating to think about that loss for those who come after me.”</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/dismantling-the-head-start-program-will-hurt-rural-families/2025/05/01/">Dismantling the Head Start Program Will Hurt Rural Families</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  374. <item>
  375. <title>Remembering the Birth of the American Music Story in &#8216;Twang&#8217;</title>
  376. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/remembering-the-birth-of-the-american-music-story-in-twang/2025/05/01/</link>
  377. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/remembering-the-birth-of-the-american-music-story-in-twang/2025/05/01/#respond</comments>
  379. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lane Wendell Fischer]]></dc:creator>
  380. <pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2025 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
  381. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  382. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=229464</guid>
  383.  
  384. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="569" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=760%2C422&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1296%2C720&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C427&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1536%2C853&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1200%2C667&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=780%2C433&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=400%2C222&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=706%2C392&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  385. <p>In the latest podcast from Rural Remix,  reporter Lane Wendell Fischer looks into the common roots of country, blues, and rock n’ roll.</p>
  386. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/remembering-the-birth-of-the-american-music-story-in-twang/2025/05/01/">Remembering the Birth of the American Music Story in &#8216;Twang&#8217;</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  387. ]]></description>
  388. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="569" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=760%2C422&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1296%2C720&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C427&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1536%2C853&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1200%2C667&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=780%2C433&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=400%2C222&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?resize=706%2C392&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Twang_Banner-3-scaled-1.webp?fit=1024%2C569&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/6QGpOzl4HkOWNiLGSglwSu?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe><p>Country radio wasn’t the only way I listened to music growing up.</p><p>My parents also raised us on the sounds and stories of blues, Motown, and rock and roll. How does this music resonate with a farm kid from Kansas?</p><p>To me Chuck Berry sounds like homemade ice cream, among other things. This might sound funny to you, but he holds a memory. It was early August, after fair season and before the first day of school. My family gathered around our back porch to do nothing but watch the sunset and whatever else was happening outside that night. My dad decided to play “School Days” to help get us in the mood for learning in the upcoming year.&nbsp;</p><p>We’d just made my great grandma’s homemade ice cream. The first bites were always the best, but in the summer heat it melted fast. I remember now how sweet life tasted then, on a sunset summer evening with my family around. And Chuck Berry was there, too, whispering from a speaker in the background. “Rock, rock, rock and roll. The feelin’ is there, body and soul.”</p><p>And then my dad played “Check Yes or No” by George Strait. “I think this is how love goes. Check yes or no.”</p><p>We are often told that artists like Chuck Berry and George Strait tell two separate stories. The radio and the charts today tell us music like country and hip-hop are two distinct genres, two unrelated musical traditions from two disparate worlds. But how different are they, really?</p><p>After all, to me they both sound like home. What if I told you that there’s only one big story to be told?</p><p>For more than three centuries, before the first recording device was invented, a musical tradition was being composed in the South. A musical revelation born out of a multiracial exchange of culture and emotion between struggling people facing enslavement, genocide and poverty.</p><p>The Blues were born out of this condition, to be sure. But there were also songs of joy, of hope, of peace, and of celebration.</p><p>“Such fiddling and dancing nobody ever before saw in this world,” Davy Crockett wrote in 1843. “Black and white, white and black, all together.”</p><p>How could struggling people celebrate in the face of such hardship?&nbsp;</p><p>They gathered around in a circle. They brought pieces of themselves, instruments, voices, gospels, memories — and they all played together. A new kind of music was born.</p><p>A music so moving that it became immensely popular – and immensely sellable – once the technology to record and sell music appeared.</p><p>Having no regard for the circle in which the music was born, the nascent recording industry split the vinyl in two. Hillbilly records for white folks and race records for Black folks. This helped streamline marketing. If they separated folks, they could sell more.</p><p>These are two different kinds of music, they said. It makes a person wonder if they ever actually heard the songs they were selling.</p><p>In a way, people bought what they sold. Race records became rhythm and blues and soul. And hillbilly records became country. And that’s history, so we’re told.</p><p>But the real story lies beyond the packaging and marketing campaigns. It’s hidden in studios, where a Black country musician kept time with piano. In writing rooms, where white and Black blues writers shared lyrics. It was in plain sight on the same porches and juke joints where the tradition began. It’s all around us today.</p><iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/13Pv15rRS5pkCOCpAjcYvq?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe><p>It’s in Beyoncé’s album, Cowboy Carter. It’s her and four Black women performing a cover of Blackbird, a Beatles’ tribute to the Little Rock Nine. This tradition in American music shows up again and again. A tradition of memory and love.</p><p>This week, Beyoncé began her 2025 Rodeo Chitlin Circuit Tour named for a network of entertainment venues where Black musicians and listeners gathered during the Jim Crow era. The tour is rooted in memory of the music played in these Chitlin Circuit venues, and before them, the music played on porches and in juke joints. A memory of the origins, of a free spirit, of Chuck Berry, of great grandma’s homemade ice cream, of love and connection.</p><p>To put it most plainly. If you are listening to any genre of popular American music, you are hearing echoes of these memories. We set out to explore them in the artists and songs featured in the latest episode of “Twang.”&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rural-remix/episodes/Twang--Ep-2-If-Beyonc-Aint-Country--What-Is-e326vk7">Episode two</a> is out now, along with a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/13Pv15rRS5pkCOCpAjcYvq?si=af1gYG5RRI616ibu1Rwmeg">companion playlist</a> featuring some of the stories we highlight (and more). I hope you’ll listen — not just to the music, but to the lives behind that trademark twang.</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/remembering-the-birth-of-the-american-music-story-in-twang/2025/05/01/">Remembering the Birth of the American Music Story in &#8216;Twang&#8217;</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  395. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">229464</post-id> </item>
  396. <item>
  397. <title>A Rural Calling: Liv Cook</title>
  398. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/a-rural-calling-liv-cook/2025/04/30/</link>
  399. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/a-rural-calling-liv-cook/2025/04/30/#respond</comments>
  401. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Taylor Sisk]]></dc:creator>
  402. <pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  403. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  404. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=228274</guid>
  405.  
  406. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="629" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-30-at-9.35.54%E2%80%AFPM.png?fit=1024%2C629&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  407. <p>On a Thursday afternoon in early April, two young women addressed the school board in East Tennessee’s rural McMinn County. Both were raised in families that came to this country as immigrants. They were expressing their concerns with a bill the state legislature is deliberating that would allow local school districts to deny enrollment to [&#8230;]</p>
  408. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/a-rural-calling-liv-cook/2025/04/30/">A Rural Calling: Liv Cook</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  409. ]]></description>
  410. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="629" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-30-at-9.35.54%E2%80%AFPM.png?fit=1024%2C629&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure><p>On a Thursday afternoon in early April, two young women addressed the school board in East Tennessee’s rural McMinn County. Both were raised in families that came to this country as immigrants. They were expressing their concerns with <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0793">a bill the state legislature is deliberating</a> that would allow local school districts to deny enrollment to undocumented children.</p><p>One young woman spoke of her parents’ hopes and dreams in coming to this country and of her own dream of being an interpreter, a psychologist, or a social worker. The other underscored that children are brought to the U.S. “not knowing about laws, borders, paperwork, or immigration status. They are innocent.”</p><p>Among those in attendance was Liv Cook. McMinn County is Cook’s home; public education is her passion. Through a decidedly turbulent time in her life, public schools were Cook’s refuge. They’re why she became a special-education teacher and why she now serves as lead organizer for the <a href="https://www.socm.org/">Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment</a>’s (SOCM) Public School Strong TN campaign.</p><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" onerror="if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-229475" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-scaled.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Liv-Cook1-972x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Liv Cook (Photo by Taylor Sisk)</figcaption></figure></div><p>Cook has helped bolster these young women’s confidence and was there that day to lend moral support. She can well empathize with a young person’s instinct to assert agency when the potential costs of silence are considerable.</p><p>Sara Denny has witnessed Cook’s growth as an organizer, an activist, and a community member. Denny, director of student success at Tennessee Wesleyan University, from which Cook graduated, met her in 2016.</p><p>“Her heart has been the same, but I’ve seen her grow in confidence, I’ve seen her grow in the understanding of her power,” Denny said. “ I’ve seen her grow into leadership.”</p><p>Cook taught for three years and hadn’t intended to leave the classroom quite so abruptly.&nbsp;</p><p>But the local school board’s decision to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/31/1076970866/maus-banned-tennessee-school-board">ban the Holocaust novel <em>Maus</em></a><em> </em>from its 8th-grade curriculum proved a turning point in her life and work. She joined with a group of community members who objected. With national attention brought to bear on the banning, the book shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.</p><p>&nbsp;“I saw the power of what it could look like when a community comes together and says, ‘This doesn&#8217;t represent who we are,’” Cook said.</p><p>She was driven to do more on behalf of public education. She told herself, “I want to do something to change the system, and right now I don’t feel like I’m changing the system. I’m just addressing individual harms.”&nbsp;</p><p>The Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment, or SOCM (<em>sock-em</em>), needed someone to work full-time on public education. Cook had found her niche.</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Survive and Thrive</strong></h3><p>Raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, an hour to the northeast of McMinn County, Cook’s upbringing was peripatetic. Her dad struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder from overseas military service; there were substance-use issues. She and her mom were unhoused for three years.&nbsp;</p><p>“Our house foreclosed, and we stayed there as long as we could,” she said. They would sleep on friends’ couches for a couple of months at a time or drive through the night, sleeping in their car. They moved in with her grandma for a few months.</p><p>“I think that in a lot of ways, it radicalized me. I know what it’s like to be so far below the poverty line,” she said, “There were a lot of ways that I felt like the system did not work for me. … I think I carried with me this understanding of ‘the system doesn’t work for the working poor; it doesn’t work for poor folks.’ I felt shame going to school smelling like mildew and cigarettes. I would always keep perfume in my backpack to not smell that way.”&nbsp;</p><p>Throughout, however, she nurtured a deep faith that she’d survive and thrive. She nurtured a profound empathy for the forgotten.&nbsp;</p><p>Around the time she entered high school, her mom met the man who is now her stepdad, and they moved to McMinn County.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Grassroots</strong></h3><p>Through it all, school was Cook’s haven. She was embraced and she excelled.</p><p>“I really loved school,” she said. “I got breakfast and lunch. I got counseling. I got Christmas gifts.” She joined clubs. “It’s what got me through.”</p><p>She became a peer mentor for a special-ed class. “That’s when I knew I wanted to be a teacher.”</p><p>She graduated from McMinn County High School in 2016 as a valedictorian and chose to stay in the area to attend Tennessee Wesleyan, in Athens. Her degree is in special education.&nbsp;</p><p>Soon after, she married Nathan Cook – they’d met in drama club at 15 – and they’ve settled in the nearby town of Etowah, at the foothills of the Cherokee National Forest. Nathan is now studying to be a history teacher.</p><p>Cook’s experience as a special-ed teacher was enlightening. “I’ve always felt that children are an oppressed class, students with disabilities even more so,” she said.</p><p>“I was really trying to implement restorative practices. I was really trying to fight for inclusion for my kids, get them their services. And I was just coming home at six o&#8217;clock every night, bawling because it was just too much.”</p><p>The opening at SOCM was an ideal fit.</p><p>SOCM was born in 1971 to advocate for underserved, isolated coalfield communities. There are now chapters across the state, advancing housing rights, public education justice, and community-driven development.</p><p>Its campaigns are firmly community grounded, Cook said, “because that’s where we have the most power.”&nbsp;</p><p>The Public School Strong TN campaign is a movement of parents, educators, neighbors, and students who believe in “honest, equitable, safe, and fully funded public schools.”&nbsp;</p><p>Community members are trained to organize at the local school board level and to then begin connecting with leaders in other counties with shared concerns. Opposition to the legislation that would deny undocumented students access to an education is a prime example of how this works. School boards across the state are hearing from their constituents.</p><p>In McMinn County, Cook said, “My hope is that if this bill passes, we have now built the relationships and put the faces to the people this will harm, and they will pass some kind of policy or statement saying they’re going to commit to serving every kid who walks in our doors.”</p><p>“I firmly believe that our stories are our most powerful tool,” she said.&nbsp;</p><h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>‘Radically Present’</strong></h3><p>Faith provides a foundation for Cook’s activism.&nbsp;</p><p>She grew up “spiritually all over the place.” Her grandma was a Southern Baptist. “I spent every weekend with her. When you spend the weekend with her, you’re going to church.”</p><p>But as she matured, she found “there’s a lot about being Southern Baptist that doesn’t align with my values, or how I see Jesus.”</p><p>At Tennessee Wesleyan, a religion instructor told her he “took the Bible too seriously to take it literally. And I was like, ‘Whoa, hold on.’” It allowed her to begin imagining a very practical, every-day faith. She minored in religion and philosophy. She now serves as children’s minister at St Paul&#8217;s Episcopal Church in Athens.</p><p>“Liv is gentle and courageous, incredibly thoughtful, and sees every person in their full dignity,” said Rev. Claire Brown, St. Paul’s rector. “She has a rare depth of integrity between her values and her practice, and this really shines through in the way that she is radically present to the children in our community with all their silliness, questions, and struggles.”</p><p>From her training in special education, Cook has created a children’s ministry environment, Brown said, that “encourages children of different ages and abilities to encourage each other.”&nbsp;</p><p>“She’s half a great crafter and half a good support,” Brown’s 5-year-old son, Amos, said. “If plans don’t work out, she always gets another idea.”</p><p>“I also see her faith at work in the ways that she rests,” Brown added. “Liv is a gardener and cook. She adores her dog and is a playful friend. She and her husband, Nathan, are deeply creative, thoughtful people, and love these hills, and it’s this rest and joy that keep her heart wide open to the work before her.”&nbsp;</p><p>Given how Cook’s strong spiritual foundation has informed her, Sara Denny added, “She can’t possibly not do good work.”</p><p>Cook has learned that if she can help create a nonjudgmental space in which to share differences, it might reveal that, for example, maybe parents aren’t “as mad about the trans kid in the bathroom as they are that their kid can’t read yet…I believe so deeply that relationships can heal a lot,” she said.</p><p>But it takes work. Organizing against the proposed legislation on undocumented students was launched in tandem with a series of community discussions SOCM hosted with St. Paul’s and a local history professor, titled “The Roots of American (Dis)Unity.”&nbsp;</p><p>The classes were in response to members of the KKK leaving flyers throughout the community in January, instructing immigrants to deport themselves.</p><p>“It’s exciting to see political education transform into community action,” Cook said.</p><p>“In these moments, I’m so deeply hopeful and excited for what we could be.&nbsp;Good<em> </em>people live here, and I’m grateful to know them and to be a small piece of growing us in a better direction.”</p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/><p><em>“A Rural Calling” is&nbsp;a Daily Yonder profile series featuring people throughout rural America who are making significant contributions to their communities.</em></p><div class="wp-block-group has-background" style="background-color:#f4f4f4"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-jetpack-contact-form"><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/a-rural-calling-liv-cook/2025/04/30/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Submit a form.</a></div></div></div><p></p><p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/a-rural-calling-liv-cook/2025/04/30/">A Rural Calling: Liv Cook</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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