It’s a fact that farmers feed America. But some FFA members in Indiana and Ohio believe in feeding those who feed us – and feeding them right in the field.

Last October, Whiteland High School FFA members packed 200 lunches for farmers who were busy working to harvest food for others. The students began packing lunches at 8 a.m. They gathered food that was donated by several businesses in the area, then assembled lunches from the contributed food items. Finally, the lunches were distributed to farmers across Johnson County in central Indiana.

The idea got started the year before when a few FFA students passed out lunches just to those farmers in Whiteland and after realizing the sacrifice those farmers were making. That spurned the students into action.

“A lot of farmers will work 12, 18 hours or all night if they have to just to get the job done, especially if they know they have bad incoming weather,” said Hannah Goeb, Whiteland High School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. “With our help they don’t have to stop and drive someplace to get a meal. They can keep working, plus I think this helps make their day a little bit smoother. It’s a good opportunity to give back to the community.”

According to Goeb, it provides the students the opportunity to stop and meet some of the farmers and talk about agriculture and learn more from them.

At first, the initiative included only farmers in Whiteland. The movement has since grown to include farmers across the county.

In Ohio, the Versailles FFA Chapter created its Feed the Farmer program to give back to those who keep the agriculture industry running.

“Feed the Farmer is an important program to show our appreciation to the farmers who feed us and play such an important role in our lives,” said Emma Middendorf, a sophomore member of the chapter.

Dena Wuebker and Taylor Bergman, the agricultural educators at Versailles High School, recognized the need to support their community’s farmers. Getting county farmers to convene at one location for a meal is nearly impossible, especially at harvest time. So rather than try to coordinate a way of getting farmers together at one venue, the group decided to take the meals to the farmers during their busiest time of the year – harvest time.

Knowing that farmers are busiest from late September to early November, Versailles FFA members gathered each Tuesday and Thursday after school to package meals. These meals included a hot sandwich, chips, yogurt, an apple, milk and dessert. Once packaged, the students and their advisors delivered meals to farmers in the field.

“The Feed the Farmer program is very important because it progresses the social skills and interactions of members by going up to the farmers and introducing themselves and explaining why they are bringing them the meals,” said Dakota Overholser, a sophomore member of the chapter. “It also shows our appreciation toward all the farmers and everything they do to help feed America.”

In addition to the Versailles community, the chapter fed farmers in North Star, Osgood, Yorkshire, Willowdell and Greenville.

“The Versailles FFA Chapter is trying to promote every aspect of agriculture through each meal,” said Laura Wuebker, a senior member of the chapter. “The milk and yogurt support the dairy industry, the ham sandwiches support hog farmers and so on. Through feeding the farmers in our community we’re also supporting agriculture on a larger scale. Farmers work tirelessly to grow the food that fuels our country, and they appreciate seeing youth supporting the industry that they give their lives to.”

Dena Wuebker said, “I see this effort sticking around for a while, seeing how much support we get from the community and how much the farmers appreciate it. We’re definitely grateful for the continued support of the Darke County Farm Bureau as well as Sunrise Cooperative who helped make this event possible.”