March 3, 2000

By Gene Hall
Information and Public Relations Director

The mythical average American works only 40 days of each year to earn enough to buy food for the entire year. Even in a nation and a time when we take unprecedented prosperity for granted, this is an astounding fact. Shoot—we work until the middle of May to pay our taxes!

The participation and enthusiasm of County Farm Bureaus has grown each year, and the results for Food Checkout Day 2000 are pretty amazing.

In all, more than 50 County Farm Bureaus conducted FCD programs. I am going to mention a few names here, and that’s dangerous, because I run the risk of leaving out some truly deserving people. I’ll try mostly to mention some of those who conducted FCD activities for the first time.

In Brazos County, young FB leader Nathan Moy stepped up to the KBTX-TV microphone and did a fine job of delivering the message of abundant, safe and inexpensive food in America. Brazos County had a media event at the local AppleTree store.

In Tarrant County, Ray Lindamood and Clyde Bell manned a booth on the importance of agriculture in daily life. They also collected more than 10 baskets of food for the Ronald McDonald House, Farm Bureau’s national partner in Food Checkout Day. Ronald McDonald House provides the families of seriously ill children housing and food while their kids are in the hospital.

Of course, there is not a Ronald McDonald House everywhere in the state, but resourceful CFB leaders found many other deserving and appreciative food charities.

In Bandera County, FB members enlisted the help of fourth graders studying in the TFB Ag in the Classroom program. Kids who brought in a can of food got a free "Blowpop" and the winning class was treated to an ice cream party. I bet the local media loved that one.

In DeWitt County, Obert Sagebiel organized an outstanding first-time effort that resulted in more than $700 cash and about 1,500 pounds of food for the Cuero Area Ministerial Alliance food bank.

Wilbarger County involved the entire board in a public relations effort at the local store. It made the front page of the Vernon Daily Record and received ample air time on the local radio station.

Darn! I am almost out of space and I’ve only gotten started. I can’t finish though, without mentioning the outstanding repeat FCD performances by County Farm Bureaus like San Patricio, Cherokee, Lubbock and many others.

To give us all a mark to shoot for, Bobby Nedbalek and the hard working leaders of San Patricio County FB delivered more than $700 in cash and more than $2,100 worth of food to the Corpus Christi Ronald McDonald House!

To all the County Farm Bureaus that participated in Food Checkout Day, a great big "Thanks!"

FCD is a runaway success. Statewide, media coverage was terrific and our leaders got a real taste of how truly effective they can be.