August 4, 2000

Grain bank gets to
heart of the matter

By Mike Barnett
Editor

In this time of low prices caused by worldwide oversupply of most every commodity, it’s hard for Texas farmers to realize that anyone in this nation or the world could go hungry.

But they are. Hunger is reality. It happens every day.

Matching excess with need is the mission of the Food and Grain Bank, a part of the humanitarian relief organization, Heart to Heart International.

“Agriculture has had a steep hill to climb over the past decade,” said Paul Fleener, senior vice president of the Food and Grain Bank. “If we just take the blinders off, we’ll see others in need. And if we look into our own hearts, and our own pocketbooks, we’ll find that though we may be having a difficult time ourselves, what little we have, if we share, goes a long, long way.

“And that’s really the philosophy of Heart to Heart International, in terms of the sharing of the products of this country, be they pharmaceutical, or in the case of the Food and Grain Bank, agricultural.

Heart to Heart was started in 1992 by Dr. Gary Morsch, who working with volunteers in Kansas City, mobilized efforts for an airlift to Russia for those needing medical attention.

That initial project gave birth to a world-class organization that today provides humanitarian assistance across the globe. The Food and Grain Bank, started only a year ago, is the food outreach arm of Heart to Heart International.

According to Fleener, former lobbyist for the Kansas Farm Bureau, the Food and Grain Bank’s prototype was launched during Heart to Heart’s efforts to help hurricane victims in Honduras.

“Right after Hurricane Mitch in Hondorus, people wanted not only medicine, but food,” Fleener said.

As part of the relief effort, Prairie Pea and Bean of Goodland, Kan., donated four tons of pinto beans. Frito-Lay, Inc., agreed to truck the beans to a warehouse in Kansas City, where the beans were flown by the military on a C-130 to Honduras.

Since then four other shipments of food have been sent to Honduras. Turkey, the Sudan, Haiti and countries in the former Soviet Union have also received aid.

But the Food and Grain Bank is busy domestically as well. For example, the non-profit organization sponsored a Fellowship 2000 dinner for 1,700 homeless people in five different locations in Washington, D.C., last March. Among those helping in the effort: former Texas Farm Bureau president, now American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman.

“He flew in from Chicago, he joined a crew and helped hand out this meal and talked with the people who received the meal and broke bread with them,” Fleener said. “And that’s what we all did, tried to work together and find out how we can help them.”

Stallman, in fact, has been named to the Food and Grain Banks Honorary Advisory Board, where he joins such notables as Sen. Pat Roberts from Kansas, and Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Larry Combest, along with fellow Texan Rep. Charles Stenholm, ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee.

Again, the Fellowship 2000 dinner was a group effort. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and ConAgra Beef Co. donated beef; Frito-Lay provided potatoes; Chiquita Processed Foods, Ltd., donated green beans; and the Kansas Wheat Commission provided wheat rolls that were baked by bakeries in Washington.

What makes Heart to Heart and the Food and Grain Bank unique—as shown with the airlift to Honduras and the Fellowship 2000 dinner—is that they don’t do anything alone.

“We do it with the help of other organizations and other missionary groups and other charitable non-governmental organizations,” Fleener said. “And we do that in this country and abroad.”

This cooperation lends itself to the organization keeping a handle on costs. Heart to Heart to date has distributed $165 million, wholesale, worth of supplies around the world.

“We’ve done that with less than 2 percent administrative cost,” Fleener proudly said.

The chief executive officer is concentrating on building a solid foundation for the relatively new food aid program. His current targets are both agribusiness and individual farmers.

“We’re going to be asking in the year 2000 for a match. Let’s say that farmer Jones gives 1,000 bushels, then we’ve got XYZ cooperative or agribusiness or one of the big six grain companies over here in a partnership with us,” Fleener explained. “We don’t have that yet, I’m saying that’s what we’re going to build toward; to say, ‘Okay, we’ll match the first 100,000 bushels you get.’ We want that kind of understanding within the grain industry as well as in the farming community.”

The Food and Grain Bank accepts donations both large and small. And Fleener is not afraid to ask for help, as was evident recently at the Texas Farm Bureau Summer Conference in Kerrville.

“Give us a hand, if you will,” he implored. “There is an opportunity for anyone in agriculture who would care to participate. You can help too, if you give a bushel; if you give $10. It would help a lot of people.”

For More Information
Heart to Heart’s Food Bank, 785-537-1740; Food and Grain Bank Office, Paul E. Fleener, Sr. Vice President/CEO, 2711 Amherst, Manhattan, Kan. 66502,
E-mail pffandgb@flinthills.com; Website www.hearttoheart.org/programs/hunger

Getting involved...
There are many ways you can get involved with Heart to Heart and the Food and Grain Bank in its mission to aid the need of others:

• CONTRIBUTE: Your dollars, your grain or other commodity, and your network of contacts. Your funds, in-kind gifts, free services and alternative resources will be used wisely.

• VOLUNTEER: Your time and your talents. You can organize a community food drive and assist in the distribution of aid. Your donation of volunteer services helps Heart to Heart maintain a low overhead.

• SHARE: Your advocacy of Heart to Heart and the Food and Grain Bank with others. Your public speaking or presentation skills can assist in spreading the Heart to Heart vision to others eager to get involved in having a “heart for the hungry.”