Digital Transformation Takes Root at USDA

The seeds of digital transformation are taking root as application reviews for our agency's first Digital Service (DS) Fellows cohort are in progress. By establishing a dedicated fellow team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), we will be able to improve access to USDA resources and programs across the country. Once onboarded this fall, our USDA Digital Service (DS) Fellows will work to accelerate the design, development, and delivery of customer-centric services.

To gain insight on digital service best practices, we hosted the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) team at our headquarters in Washington, D.C. last month. Digital Service staff from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other agencies shared their experience with USDS, how they are addressing current challenges, and what the future of digital services at their agencies looks like.

"We are so appreciative of the great collaboration and partnership with USDS as we work to shape a Digital Service team here at USDA, and we learned a lot about how we can continue to drive this great work here across the many mission areas and missions of USDA," said Arianne Gallagher-Welcher, Executive Director of the USDA Digital Service and Co-Founder of the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program.

USDA has seen firsthand the difference digital service can make. As the People's Department, one of our most important missions is ensuring access to nutritious and safe food. Many of our nation's youngest children were affected when a manufacturer product recall and weakened supply chains caused an infant formula shortage in 2022. This particularly impacted USDA customers, as families who use our Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC program) buy 56% of all the formula sold in America.

With other federal partners, USDA teamed up with the USDS to develop and analyze real-time data about the amount of formula available in any given U.S. location. As a result, 388 million bottles of infant formula were imported and deployed to the places that needed it most based on new data and analytics.

This is just one example of how digital service can deliver solutions for the federal government's most challenging technology implementation problems. You can learn more about this and other USDS solutions in their 2024 Impact Report. Our collaborative partnership with USDS is essential as our new Digital Service team launches. Together, we will build a stronger technology organization at USDA than can more efficiently support our employees and customers in the future.