It started in the 80’s when volunteers literally were walking fields, hand harvesting corn. Harvest of Hope has now become a staple of Wisconsin agriculture assistance for families facing various challenges.
Roger Williams, co-founder of the group, says that Wisconsin agriculture may have changed over the past 30 times, but the unpredictability of weather, commodity prices and family farm dynamics has not. Williams says that Harvest of Hope serves farm families across the state despite being headquartered in Dane County. 2017 has been active year for the group too! “We’ve gotten a lot of requests this year,” Williams tells Pam Jahnke. “We’ve stepped in to help several farm families specifically with utility bills.” Many farms are heavy users of electricity for everything from keeping lights on in the barn to operating milking equipment and cooling engines. Those day-to-day expenses can really add up.
Williams says that they are entirely dependent on donations to keep assisting farm families across the state. Some donations come anonymously while others may be connected to corporate giving. However the money comes – Williams says they could use more.
“We limit the amount of money we grant to any one family to try and make sure we can help more,” Williams explains. Right now, call volume is up from farms looking for a little help.
To learn more about the history of Harvest of Hope, and how you can either apply for assistance or better yet, DONATE – go to:
Harvest of Hope.