Emily Rappleye

Homeownership can help break the cycle of poverty, but for many families, it’s just out of reach. In Perry County, Kentucky, where the poverty rate is near twice the national average, a nonprofit called the Housing Development Alliance has set out to close the gap.

Rock band Jethro Tull and the Covid pandemic planted the seeds for a budding micro farm in Pittsburg, Kansas (population: 20,646) that is meeting a longstanding need for healthy food access. Leafy Green Farms was founded by Brad Fourby, a Navy veteran and California transplant drawn to opportunity in the Kansas plains. But in a state where the average farm is 781 acres, Leafy Green Farms is an anomaly. For one, it doesn’t use any soil. It also fits in a 40-foot shipping container.

Developer Justin Forde often drove through Mapleton, North Dakota, thinking, ‘Here is a town without a downtown.’ The bedroom community has nearly doubled in size over the last decade and is now home to about 1,500 people. It has an 18-hole golf course, and it’s a short drive from Fargo, where many residents commute for work. Yet there was nowhere to grab a cup of coffee. One day, Forde realized: Why not build a town square in Mapleton from scratch?