Charlie Mike The Podcast
Charlie Mike The Podcast
They Served Us, Now We Serve Them: The Farm to Veteran Story
A simple concept born on a 60-acre farm outside Chicago has blossomed into a nationwide movement feeding thousands of veterans. Michelle, Senior Director of Farm to Veteran, shares the remarkable journey of this young nonprofit that's donated over 420,000 meals to veterans across nine states since 2020.
What began with just 20 chickens has expanded into a comprehensive operation with 400 chickens producing up to 100 dozen eggs weekly, along with beef, pork, and produce – all donated to veterans in need. Michelle explains their straightforward philosophy: "Veterans served us, so now it's our turn to serve them." This dedication stems from their founder's deep appreciation for military service and recognition that quality nutrition can help heal both body and mind.
Want to support veterans with farm-fresh food? Visit https://www.farm2veteran.com/ to donate, volunteer, or connect if you're a farmer interested in partnering with this extraordinary organization.
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This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping veterans. Talking about things happening in the veteran community, things we've experienced and overcome, such as addictions, ptsd, depression, legal trouble, and we also promote veteran-owned businesses. If you're talking about it, we're talking about it. This is Charlie Mike the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike, the podcast. As always, I'm your host, raul. Today I have a very special guest in the house. I would like to introduce you to Michelle.
Speaker 3:I am the senior director here at Farm to Veteran, which is a nonprofit that is outside of the city of Chicago, more in the far south suburbs. It started in 2020 as just a concept and an idea to donate everything we produce on a 60-acre farm here to Veterans in Need. Been with the organization since the start developed it from just a concept and an idea with our founder and a farm manager and we've grown to where we are today.
Speaker 2:Who are you? Give me a little bit about your background.
Speaker 3:My background. I have a degree in political science, which doesn't really make a difference here Was in the corporate world for many years doing everything from office management to executive assistant and helped to actually run 400 convenience stores at one point in time as an executive assistant to a vice president, and kind of needed a change in my life and answered a Facebook ad believe it or not, it's for a gentleman who wanted someone to help him manage multiple businesses. So our founder and CEO is a serial entrepreneur. He didn't need somebody full-time for everything and somebody just to bounce ideas off of, and from there this concept grew. He's like it's you help start it, you run it, and that's where we are today.
Speaker 2:Crazy. So farm to veteran. Now, how did it all begin? What was the light bulb moment where it became an idea?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, like I said, our founder and CEO he was a serial entrepreneur, got many industries, venture capitalism, all that kind of stuff and at one point, through a lot of his interactions, just said if I ever could do something for veterans I would. His interactions just said if I ever could do something for veterans I would. He kind of started a hobby farm, probably about 15 years ago, on 60 acres in the far south suburbs of Chicago, for about an hour and a half out of the city, which people are like wait, chicago, like there's farms out there.
Speaker 3:but yeah, you get to a certain point in Illinois and it's farmland and he started doing just hobby farming, started with 20 chickens and liked it and then hired on a farm manager, was doing for-profit farming mostly livestock and was coming into the problem of just people weren't showing up anymore and you have a dozen eggs that are waiting for somebody and then it spoils. And he's like you know what? I always want to do something for veterans, let's see if we can make it happen. That's kind of when I came in and the three of us kind of sat down, came up with this concept and said let's see if we can make it work Again.
Speaker 3:At the beginning always bumps along the road, but we started out with 20 chickens and kind of just an idea. We now have, I think, over 400 chickens on our farm. We produce anywhere from 60 to 100 dozen eggs a week that we donate. We also do pork and beef and it's even expanded to having partner farmers across the country that we work with farmers and ranchers to be able to give food to veterans, homegrown, farm grown. I mean. We have a produce partner that provides produce, we have ranchers that help us with beef and pork and it's straight from the farm to the veteran.
Speaker 2:So what was so his? His idea was to help veterans. Why veterans?
Speaker 3:It's. He's just kind of always had a soft spot for veterans. He's a huge patriot. Through his Lots of his entrepreneurial endeavors he met with veterans veterans that were doing well but had a friend who was struggling whether that was struggling with addiction or PTSD or whatever problem or that they were presenting themselves. He was like I want to do something to help veterans that they were presenting themselves. He was like I want to do something to help veterans. And when this whole concept came about, he's like well, what if we just give them food, good food, and that then that can help nurture their bodies, which then can help nurture their minds, and then it's a whole domino effect.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. So it's. It's in, as you said, the outskirts of Chicago and are y'all just in the state.
Speaker 3:We are not. We've actually expanded to nine states, that's amazing, are you in Texas? We are in Texas. What when? At Fort Worth, I believe.
Speaker 2:Oh, the Dallas area. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. So from the beginning, when you started working for veterans a farm to veteran did you expect to be at this moment? Did you see the growth originally, or what are you sure?
Speaker 3:When I first started there was no farm to veteran, so it was just a farm and this concept kind of came about. And in the nonprofit world we're only five years old. That's very, very young, and I never thought that it would be where it is today, nor the impact. They've lost over 20 pounds. A1cs have gone down. Somebody who is pre-diabetic is no longer pre-diabetic, based on just eating healthier. So it's just one of those things that you see, the impact we started it was we're going to give a couple dozen eggs a week, this and that, and it just kind of grew and grew and grew. And I was lucky enough to have our CEO just like make it happen. He goes, do what you need to make it happen, he goes. Let's see how far we can grow this. And, believe me, I could grow it even more, but it does take funding.
Speaker 2:So I could imagine the amount. Now it's a 501 and you guys donate 100%.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm just amazed. I'm amazed by it. So far, it says that y'all have donated over 420,000 meals.
Speaker 3:Yes, since we started in over nine states.
Speaker 2:That's crazy.
Speaker 3:We're creeping up to that half a million mark and I'm hoping I'm going to have a big, huge celebration when that happens.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, but when was COVID?
Speaker 3:2020. We literally started at the beginning. Worst time ever to start a nonprofit. I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2:Especially trying to give away stuff, oh man.
Speaker 3:So we count numbers from that first year, just believe it or not because it probably was not all going to veterans and we don't want to count veterans and we don't want to count that. So we don't even count our first entire year. And so 2020, there are no numbers for 2020 of meals donated. We just basically say that was our trial year, to see.
Speaker 2:I believe that. So how many, how big is this farm? Let's, let's talk about that.
Speaker 3:So the farm here in Manhattan is 60 acres 60 acres.
Speaker 2:Yes, genius, yeah, that's. I'm still. I'm still blown away. I'm thinking about it in my head, the concept, the whole concept behind it, and it's it's hard to find genuine people trying to do good things in this world. And, and me doing my research on you guys, it's I get kind of emotional, especially when it comes to speaking about my brothers and sisters in the veteran community. I don't know what to say. Besides, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 3:We just have this concept that veterans served us, so now it's our turn to serve them. I have veterans that have been in my family. Both my grandfathers were veterans, great grandfathers, everything like that and just to hear the stories, one of my grandfathers actually was a Holocaust survivor. He was not in the US military, but he was actually in the Polish military and he was actually saved by the United States. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the military, and that's where I always wanted to do something for them.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of friends that are military and it's great to go into some of these locations and hear their stories and some of them I mean, I have some 80-year-old men that want to tell me stories and have someone sit there and talk with them. And it's not just about the food but it's around the conversations that happen because of the food. We have monthly barbecues at one of the veteran homes that we just go and I yes, I'm out there flipping burgers and I have one guy who critiques the way that I flip burgers. He said, no, you can't, you can't do that, You're going to lose all the juice. But then you just sit there and you have a conversation and that's probably one of my favorite days of the month because I can sit there and listen to them and know that somebody's actually wanting to hear their stories and it's just so heartwarming and I will do anything that I possibly can to make sure that veterans are taken care of.
Speaker 2:Okay, so in the future, what do you see in the future? What does Michelle see for farm to veteran?
Speaker 3:So the future? I honestly I have no idea. The landscape has changed for nonprofits so much in the last year. What's Nice about ours is that we've never taken a cent of government funding, so we were increased frequency. I don't know that, but given the growth that we've had in the last five years, I can only imagine that we're going to be in more states, feeding more veterans, working with more farmers. I just can't tell you the exact number at this point.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So, with you guys being a 501c3, how is the majority of your? How do you raise funds?
Speaker 3:So raising funds kind of has a little bit of a tiered approach. Obviously, we have a donation link on our website under farm to veterancom and that's probably the majority of where the funding comes from. We do have a few folks that are pretty big benefactors. We do have events throughout the community like working with local American legions, vfws, other veteran organizations. We have a collaborative approach when it comes to working with other veteran organizations so that we're always doing everything together. So, whether or not it's like a chili cook-off or a rib roast, whatever, golf outing, all the kinds of community events. We're very much into the community and, yes, a lot of those things are fundraisers and everything like that, not big dollar things, but just fun things that bring the community together, bring the veterans together. This year we're actually having our first fundraiser gala, so we're doing that in September, on September 20th at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Speaker 2:You've got a big name coming in.
Speaker 3:We actually have a couple big names. So our headliner, of course, is David Spade. He's going to be a comedian and we actually just announced that we do have a comedic host, Tom Tran, who's a US Army vet and founder of GIs of Comedy. So he's going to come and be our host and be an opener. It's going to be an overall good time. A couple weeks ago, we actually had an event called Voices of Valor that we're hoping to maybe turn into a series where we had Marcus Luttrell actually come on, do a talk, learn about his story and what he endured and just his vision for the future of veterans and what we can do to help them. So that just happened a couple of weeks ago. But, yeah, like things like that, we're trying to just get the overall veteran that the people that can give the top dollar and people that can give just $5. It takes us all to make this happen. People can give. That's great, but there's just even awareness of who we are is fantastic that.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. So when? So this is your first gala you, you guys, are are having, and so I think of davis payton. I automatically think joe dirt, so that's why I started laughing, or me or Joe Dirt okay. Did you see? You know how Morgan Wallen does the little walk-in every time and he brings famous people, and I think he had brought Joe Dirt in on one of them. I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3:Hey, if Morgan Wallen wants to come to the gala too, he's more than welcome.
Speaker 2:There you go. Tell Joe Dirt to jump on that. Yeah, that's awesome. So people can donate and find out more information about your nonprofit Farm to Veteran on farmtoveterancom. Yes, and what other events?
Speaker 3:do y'all have coming up? The biggest thing on my mind right now is obviously the gala, but have a rib cook office coming up middle of August. A couple other things that we're working on within the community. There's an organization called Warriors Walk. That's with preventing social suicide. They do a 22 mile ruck walk. That's in the local community, so we're helping out with that. There's all kinds of just local community events in the Chicagoland area. I mean, those are our biggest events right now, but there's always more things coming up. We list them on our events page as they come up.
Speaker 2:So are you able to name any of the veteran organizations that y'all partner with?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. One of our biggest partners is Volunteers of America. They have here in Illinois. They have two locations that we work with, primarily One in Joliet that's called Hope Manor. It's a subsidized housing program for veterans, Whether they're facing addiction, recovery or PTSD. It's definitely helping out with them. And then that same organization has affiliates across the country that have similar programs. So we're in the Volunteers of America in Florida, Texas, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado and Washington State. And then we work with a place in Iowa called Freedom Foundation, as well as other organizations like St Leo's, which is through Catholic Charities that has a veterans program, Veterans New Beginnings. We also work with Manteno Veterans Home, which is a government housed veterans organization, as well as some VA locations that have homelessness programs or unhoused folks, just to kind of get everybody across the board. But then we work with other organizations that are you folks, just to kind of get everybody across the board. But then we work with other organizations that are, you know, just kind of trying to bring awareness to any veteran causes, Like I mentioned, the Warriors Walk Veterans Garage, which helps veterans.
Speaker 3:They restore military vehicles and bring a purpose back to them. They're fantastic, they're at all of our events and we call them our sister charity. They call us their sister charity. Like we just we kind of do everything kind of together and it's always nice when you bring a Humvee. We had an event where we actually went to one of the house locations. It was around Christmas time and we actually had Santa in the Humvee picking up through the turret and came to see all the kids that were living there. So it was a great event. But great partners that I have, Obviously our local American legions and VFWs and all those things. They're a great help. We worked with Ritz-Kopf America because we have a local cemetery here and just a lot of community support and a lot of community organizations that we definitely work with as well as making sure we have I mean, there's local veterans assistance commissions we work with as well. So we want to get to those places where veterans are already going, so that it's kind of a one-stop shop.
Speaker 2:Michelle, I'm going to be honest with you. I normally have a lot of questions and I'm just blown away by the fact that I just recently learned about Farm to Veteran and I'm going to yell y'all's name from the rooftop and try to help you as much as I can. As far as donations so donations are done through the website Did they follow you on social media or any social medias you'd like to plug?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're on Facebook, instagram, Twitter or I think it's called X now you know who knows LinkedIn. We're on all the major social medias, but it's farm the number two veteran on all of them. Our website has a lot of information. If there's anything that you can email us, have any questions, we have a phone number there. We're always willing to talk. If there's farmers that want to partner, if there's organizations that want to partner, we can absolutely make a conversation and figure out where we can go from there. We'd like to help as many people as we possibly can, but obviously it takes a lot to make sure that this all happens and I always want to make sure that we are doing our best for everybody that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Michelle has been great talking to you and I hope that we can have you on again in the future and just learn more about the progress.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
