Farm Bureau harvest kickoff lunch meant to give back to the community

Adair County Farm Bureau Federation and Connie Hohertz Farm Bureau Financial Services held their second annual Harvest Kickoff Lunch to recognize and thank those in agriculture in the area communities.

During the middle of the day Thursday, Sept. 8, free sack lunches were handed out to the community by representatives from the two entities in the parking lot across Iowa Street from their office.

“Last year it was something we wanted to go as a give back to our community,” Hohertz said. “We always try to support agriculture and rural communities. Instead of doing the meal for just Farm Bureau clients or members, we opened it up to the community. They’ve all supported our business so we wanted to support the farmers as harvest is getting started and show our appreciation for all they do.”

Lunches included pulled pork sandwiches, a drink, a cookie and chips and were again met with positive feedback this year.

“We had almost 200 people last year and this year that came,” Hohertz said. “They came from different towns — we had people coming in from Stuart, Orient, obviously Greenfield, Fontanelle and Bridgewater — so we drew a nice crowd. It feels really good to do that. It feels good that people appreciate it, that we can help in some small way in our ag community.”

Several other initiatives that these two organizations have done in the past year include giving monetarily and in free popcorn nights to Nodaway Valley activities, participating in an egg giveaway around the county, and donating to the Adair County Fair, most notably through 5-gallon buckets that were given to each livestock exhibitor this year.

Hohertz exclaimed that her team of Mindy Comstock, Shannon Hoadley, Baylie Lund, all of the Adair County Farm Bureau board members, and Sherri Menefee, who is the Farm Bureau Federation office assistant.

“We work well together,” Hohertz said, speaking of both the federation and her financial services office. “We both want to promote Farm Bureau.”