| As a farmer, there is an unspoken code between a man and the soil. There is a quiet voice telling you when it is time to plant and when it is time to harvest. All farmers, in whatever country on this earth, speak a universal language: "farming." |
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| Farmers have a keen sense of responsibility to the earth, a strong sense of anticipation for weather and its causes and effects, an important sense of urgency for growing things. Farmers are nurturers, nature's caretakers.
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| "To whom much is given, much shall be required." Luke 12:48 |
Prairie Mills is a company made up of a growing group of people, and we live in an abundant place, the Midwest, the heart of America, the breadbasket of the world as some might say. Prairie Mills is fortunate to have productive and progressive farmers, customers and people that work on leading edge products and developments. It is a company that has been blessed with outstanding relationships with customers, suppliers, and has productive and proactive relationships with all of its employees. Even during this very challenging season of our country's economy, our Company has remained stable and its products relevant and our financial position remains strong. This is a company that has chosen to engage in its local communities to support local community programs, whether they be with schools, hospitals, various community initiatives or statewide programs. We are a company of common people doing some very uncommon things, and we strive to make a positive and sustainable impact on our communities at home and in selected places around the world.
Beginning in 2007, the Company began a concerted effort to support youth and community programs in the towns it operates its businesses. In 2008, these efforts expanded toward healthcare and various rural community initiatives in Indiana and Ohio. The Company intends to increase its assistance to youth programs in rural Indiana and Ohio in the coming years.
On an international basis, a more complex set of opportunities exist. During the past four years, John Cory has wandered four times through various countries on the continent of Africa. He has truly seen what we call, "the last, the least and the lost." After sitting one day on the ground, with tears in his eyes, holding three newly orphaned small starving, naked, children under the ages of 7 whose parents had both just died from HIV, and with nowhere for those children to go, he determined at that moment it was time to engage, to do something, even if it was merely one family at a time, and to do it on a "sustainable basis," not merely a field trip visit to some far away place in Africa or a place or person to send money or clothes to. This year, as a result of much research, cooperative efforts with people here in the Midwest and in Kenya, and the benefit of corporate sponsorships and partnerships with various Christian mission initiatives, Prairie Mills intends to begin sponsoring selected food and agricultural developments in certain areas of Kenya, and initially in southwest Kenya in a community known as Kager Village. The early efforts are to work with a group that is known as Jubilee Village Project, whereby holistic support and relief can be soon replaced with rural self sufficiency in food production.
As a farmer, there is an unspoken code between a man and the soil. There is a quiet voice telling you when it is time to plant and when it is time to harvest. All farmers, in whatever country on this earth, speak a universal language: "farming." Farmers have a keen sense of responsibility to the earth, a strong sense of anticipation for weather and its causes and effects, an important sense of urgency for growing things. Farmers are nurturers, natures caretakers.
A growing number of Kenya farmers, especially in the southwestern part of the country need help. They need coaching, mentoring, and leadership. Things we all often take for granted, they sometimes know little about. Overgrazed pastures, under utilized seasonal water resources, over worked soils, poorly managed tillage practices, and the absence of good seed and fertilizer makes fields which produce crops without much hope. Water management, good seed, fertilizer, good agronomic practices, grain storage, and grain milling are tangible and practical things, you might call "low hanging fruit" that can be gotten in six months. Kenya has infrastructure that most other countries in Africa do not. It is a good place to begin an agricultural-food iniative, and the Kager Village is perhaps one of the better places to start.
Indiana has many Hoosiers working in Kenya, from the IU-Moy University Ampath program at El Dorett, to numerous NGO and missionary efforts such as Missions of Hope in Nairobi working with Christian Missionary Fellowship, and various other mission efforts by churches from Indiana.
Prairie Mills intends to engage in this agricultural and food effort in Kenya to help create a sustainable model that can be replicated in other villages. 2009 is the year we intend to begin. We will need helpers, we will need farmers especially.
After walking dusty roads in many rural places of Africa, where water and food are always in short supply, it is clear, we have been blessed, very blessed. As we have been given hope, may we share that hope to others who have so little, and may they find the joy that we know... From one family to another, one at a time.
In time, Prairie Mills Foundation will be established for sustained ongoing efforts both internationally and right here at home.
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