September 4, 2025 • 17 mins
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping
veterans.
Talking about things happeningin the veteran community, things
we've experienced and overcome,such as addictions, ptsd,
depression, legal trouble, andwe also promote veteran-owned
businesses.
If you're talking about it,we're talking about it.
(00:24):
This is Charlie Mike thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike,
the podcast.
As always, I'm your host, raul.
Today I have a very specialguest in the house.
I would like to introduce youto Michelle.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I am the senior director here at Farm to Veteran
, which is a nonprofit that isoutside of the city of Chicago,
more in the far south suburbs.
It started in 2020 as just aconcept and an idea to donate
everything we produce on a60-acre farm here to Veterans in
Need.
Been with the organizationsince the start developed it
from just a concept and an ideawith our founder and a farm
(01:05):
manager and we've grown to wherewe are today.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Who are you?
Give me a little bit about yourbackground.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
My background.
I have a degree in politicalscience, which doesn't really
make a difference here Was inthe corporate world for many
years doing everything fromoffice management to executive
assistant and helped to actuallyrun 400 convenience stores at
one point in time as anexecutive assistant to a vice
president, and kind of needed achange in my life and answered a
(01:35):
Facebook ad believe it or not,it's for a gentleman who wanted
someone to help him managemultiple businesses.
So our founder and CEO is aserial entrepreneur.
He didn't need somebodyfull-time for everything and
somebody just to bounce ideasoff of, and from there this
(01:55):
concept grew.
He's like it's you help startit, you run it, and that's where
we are today.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Crazy.
So farm to veteran.
Now, how did it all begin?
What was the light bulb momentwhere it became an idea?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah.
So, like I said, our founderand CEO he was a serial
entrepreneur, got manyindustries, venture capitalism,
all that kind of stuff and atone point, through a lot of his
interactions, just said if Iever could do something for
veterans I would.
His interactions just said if Iever 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 southsuburbs of Chicago, for about an
(02:31):
hour and a half out of the city, which people are like wait,
chicago, like there's farms outthere.
but yeah, you get to a certainpoint in Illinois and it's
farmland and he started doingjust hobby farming, started with
20 chickens and liked it andthen hired on a farm manager,
was doing for-profit farmingmostly livestock and was coming
(02:52):
into the problem of just peopleweren't showing up anymore and
you have a dozen eggs that arewaiting for somebody and then it
spoils.
And he's like you know what?
I always want to do somethingfor veterans, let's see if we
can make it happen.
That's kind of when I came inand the three of us kind of sat
down, came up with this conceptand said let's see if we can
make it work Again.
At the beginning always bumpsalong the road, but we started
(03:15):
out with 20 chickens and kind ofjust an idea.
We now have, I think, over 400chickens on our farm.
We produce anywhere from 60 to100 dozen eggs a week that we
donate.
We also do pork and beef andit's even expanded to having
partner farmers across thecountry that we work with
(03:36):
farmers and ranchers to be ableto give food to veterans,
homegrown, farm grown.
I mean.
We have a produce partner thatprovides produce, we have
ranchers that help us with beefand pork and it's straight from
the farm to the veteran.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So what was so his?
His idea was to help veterans.
Why veterans?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
It's.
He's just kind of always had asoft spot for veterans.
He's a huge patriot.
Through his Lots of hisentrepreneurial endeavors he met
with veterans veterans thatwere doing well but had a friend
who was struggling whether thatwas struggling with addiction
or PTSD or whatever problem orthat they were presenting
(04:21):
themselves.
He was like I want to dosomething to help veterans that
they were presenting themselves.
He was like I want to dosomething to help veterans.
And when this whole conceptcame about, he's like well, what
if we just give them food, goodfood, and that then that can
help nurture their bodies, whichthen can help nurture their
minds, and then it's a wholedomino effect.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's amazing.
So it's.
It's in, as you said, theoutskirts of Chicago and are
y'all just in the state.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
We are not.
We've actually expanded to ninestates, that's amazing, are you
in Texas?
We are in Texas.
What when?
At Fort Worth, I believe.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Oh, the Dallas area.
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
So from the beginning, when youstarted working for veterans a
farm to veteran did you expectto be at this moment?
Did you see the growthoriginally, or what are you sure
?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
When I first started there was no farm to veteran, so
it was just a farm and thisconcept kind of came about.
And in the nonprofit worldwe're only five years old.
That's very, very young, and Inever thought that it would be
where it is today, nor theimpact.
They've lost over 20 pounds.
(05:34):
A1cs have gone down.
Somebody who is pre-diabetic isno longer pre-diabetic, based
on just eating healthier.
So it's just one of thosethings that you see, the impact
we started it was we're going togive a couple dozen eggs a week
, this and that, and it justkind of grew and grew and grew.
(05:55):
And I was lucky enough to haveour CEO just like make it happen
.
He goes, do what you need tomake it happen, he goes.
Let's see how far we can growthis.
And, believe me, I could growit even more, but it does take
funding.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So I could imagine the amount.
Now it's a 501 and you guysdonate 100%.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I'm just amazed.
I'm amazed by it.
So far, it says that y'all havedonated over 420,000 meals.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yes, since we started in over nine states.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
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 (06:40):
That's amazing, but when was COVID?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
2020.
We literally started at thebeginning.
Worst time ever to start anonprofit.
I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Especially trying to give away stuff, oh man.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So we count numbers from that first year, just
believe it or not because itprobably was not all going to
veterans and we don't want tocount veterans and we don't want
to count that.
So we don't even count ourfirst entire year.
And so 2020, there are nonumbers for 2020 of meals
donated.
We just basically say that wasour trial year, to see.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I believe that.
So how many, how big is thisfarm?
Let's, let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the farm here in Manhattan is 60 acres 60 acres.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, genius, yeah, that's.
I'm still.
I'm still blown away.
I'm thinking about it in myhead, the concept, the whole
concept behind it, and it's it'shard to find genuine people
trying to do good things in thisworld.
And, and me doing my researchon you guys, it's I get kind of
(07:43):
emotional, especially when itcomes to speaking about my
brothers and sisters in theveteran community.
I don't know what to say.
Besides, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
We just have this concept that veterans served us,
so now it's our turn to servethem.
I have veterans that have beenin my family.
Both my grandfathers wereveterans, great grandfathers,
everything like that and just tohear the stories, one of my
grandfathers actually was aHolocaust survivor.
He was not in the US military,but he was actually in the
(08:12):
Polish military and he wasactually saved by the United
States.
I wouldn't be here today if itwasn't for the military, and
that's where I always wanted todo something for them.
I have a lot of friends that aremilitary and it's great to go
into some of these locations andhear their stories and some of
(08:35):
them I mean, I have some80-year-old men that want to
tell me stories and have someonesit there and talk with them.
And it's not just about thefood but it's around the
conversations that happenbecause of the food.
We have monthly barbecues atone of the veteran homes that we
just go and I yes, I'm outthere flipping burgers and I
have one guy who critiques theway that I flip burgers.
(08:56):
He said, no, you can't, youcan't do that, You're going to
lose all the juice.
But then you just sit there andyou have a conversation and
that's probably one of myfavorite days of the month
because I can sit there andlisten to them and know that
somebody's actually wanting tohear their stories and it's just
so heartwarming and I will doanything that I possibly can to
(09:19):
make sure that veterans aretaken care of.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, so in the future, what do you see in the
future?
What does Michelle see for farmto veteran?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So the future?
I honestly I have no idea.
The landscape has changed fornonprofits so much in the last
year.
What's Nice about ours is thatwe've never taken a cent of
government funding, so we wereincreased frequency.
I don't know that, but giventhe growth that we've had in the
(10:07):
last five years, I can onlyimagine that we're going to be
in more states, feeding moreveterans, working with more
farmers.
I just can't tell you the exactnumber at this point.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
That's awesome.
So, with you guys being a 501c3, how is the majority of your?
How do you raise funds?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So raising funds kind of has a little bit of a tiered
approach.
Obviously, we have a donationlink on our website under farm
to veterancom and that'sprobably the majority of where
the funding comes from.
We do have a few folks that arepretty big benefactors.
We do have events throughoutthe community like working with
local American legions, vfws,other veteran organizations.
(10:51):
We have a collaborativeapproach when it comes to
working with other veteranorganizations so that we're
always doing everything together.
So, whether or not it's like achili cook-off or a rib roast,
whatever, golf outing, all thekinds of community events.
We're very much into thecommunity and, yes, a lot of
those things are fundraisers andeverything like that, not big
(11:13):
dollar things, but just funthings that bring the community
together, bring the veteranstogether.
This year we're actually havingour first fundraiser gala, so
we're doing that in September,on September 20th at the Field
Museum in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You've got a big name coming in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
We actually have a couple big names.
So our headliner, of course, isDavid Spade.
He's going to be a comedian andwe actually just announced that
we do have a comedic host, TomTran, who's a US Army vet and
founder of GIs of Comedy.
So he's going to come and beour host and be an opener.
It's going to be an overallgood time.
A couple weeks ago, we actuallyhad an event called Voices of
(11:50):
Valor that we're hoping to maybeturn into a series where we had
Marcus Luttrell actually comeon, do a talk, learn about his
story and what he endured andjust his vision for the future
of veterans and what we can doto help them.
So that just happened a coupleof weeks ago.
But, yeah, like things likethat, we're trying to just get
(12:12):
the overall veteran that thepeople that can give the top
dollar and people that can givejust $5.
It takes us all to make thishappen.
People can give.
That's great, but there's justeven awareness of who we are is
fantastic that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
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 doesthe little walk-in every time
(12:48):
and he brings famous people, andI think he had brought Joe Dirt
in on one of them.
I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Hey, if Morgan Wallen wants to come to the gala too,
he's more than welcome.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
There you go.
Tell Joe Dirt to jump on that.
Yeah, that's awesome.
So people can donate and findout more information about your
nonprofit Farm to Veteran onfarmtoveterancom.
Yes, and what other events?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
do y'all have coming up?
The biggest thing on my mindright now is obviously the gala,
but have a rib cook officecoming up middle of August.
A couple other things thatwe're working on within the
community.
There's an organization calledWarriors Walk.
That's with preventing socialsuicide.
They do a 22 mile ruck walk.
That's in the local community,so we're helping out with that.
(13:40):
There's all kinds of just localcommunity events in the
Chicagoland area.
I mean, those are our biggestevents right now, but there's
always more things coming up.
We list them on our events pageas they come up.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So are you able to name any of the veteran
organizations that y'all partnerwith?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Absolutely so.
One of our biggest partners isVolunteers of America.
They have here in Illinois.
They have two locations that wework with, primarily One in
Joliet that's called Hope Manor.
It's a subsidized housingprogram for veterans, Whether
they're facing addiction,recovery or PTSD.
It's definitely helping outwith them.
(14:20):
And then that same organizationhas affiliates across the
country that have similarprograms.
So we're in the Volunteers ofAmerica in Florida, Texas,
Michigan, Indiana, Colorado andWashington State.
And then we work with a placein Iowa called Freedom
Foundation, as well as otherorganizations like St Leo's,
(14:43):
which is through CatholicCharities that has a veterans
program, Veterans New Beginnings.
We also work with MantenoVeterans Home, which is a
government housed veteransorganization, as well as some VA
locations that havehomelessness programs or
unhoused folks, just to kind ofget everybody across the board.
But then we work with otherorganizations that are you folks
, just to kind of get everybodyacross the board.
(15:03):
But then we work with otherorganizations that are, you know
, just kind of trying to bringawareness to any veteran causes,
Like I mentioned, the WarriorsWalk Veterans Garage, which
helps veterans.
They restore military vehiclesand bring a purpose back to them
.
They're fantastic, they're atall of our events and we call
them our sister charity.
They call us their sistercharity.
(15:24):
Like we just we kind of doeverything kind of together and
it's always nice when you bringa Humvee.
We had an event where weactually went to one of the
house locations.
It was around Christmas timeand we actually had Santa in the
Humvee picking up through theturret and came to see all the
kids that were living there.
(15:45):
So it was a great event.
But great partners that I have,Obviously our local American
legions and VFWs and all thosethings.
They're a great help.
We worked with Ritz-KopfAmerica because we have a local
cemetery here and just a lot ofcommunity support and a lot of
community organizations that wedefinitely work with as well as
making sure we have I mean,there's local veterans
(16:08):
assistance commissions we workwith as well.
So we want to get to thoseplaces where veterans are
already going, so that it's kindof a one-stop shop.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Michelle, I'm going to be honest with you.
I normally have a lot ofquestions and I'm just blown
away by the fact that I justrecently learned about Farm to
Veteran and I'm going to yelly'all's name from the rooftop
and try to help you as much as Ican.
As far as donations sodonations are done through the
(16:44):
website Did they follow you onsocial media or any social
medias you'd like to plug?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, we're on Facebook, instagram, Twitter or
I think it's called X now youknow who knows LinkedIn.
We're on all the major socialmedias, but it's farm the number
two veteran on all of them.
Our website has a lot ofinformation.
If there's anything that youcan email us, have any questions
, we have a phone number there.
We're always willing to talk.
(17:09):
If there's farmers that want topartner, if there's
organizations that want topartner, we can absolutely make
a conversation and figure outwhere we can go from there.
We'd like to help as manypeople as we possibly can, but
obviously it takes a lot to makesure that this all happens and
I always want to make sure thatwe are doing our best for
(17:30):
everybody that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Michelle has been great talking to you and I hope
that we can have you on again inthe future and just learn more
about the progress.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Thank you.
This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping
veterans.
Talking about things happeningin the veteran community, things
we've experienced and overcome,such as addictions, ptsd,
depression, legal trouble, andwe also promote veteran-owned
businesses.
If you're talking about it,we're talking about it.
(00:24):
This is Charlie Mike thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike,
the podcast.
As always, I'm your host, raul.
Today I have a very specialguest in the house.
I would like to introduce youto Michelle.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I am the senior director here at Farm to Veteran
, which is a nonprofit that isoutside of the city of Chicago,
more in the far south suburbs.
It started in 2020 as just aconcept and an idea to donate
everything we produce on a60-acre farm here to Veterans in
Need.
Been with the organizationsince the start developed it
from just a concept and an ideawith our founder and a farm
(01:05):
manager and we've grown to wherewe are today.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Who are you?
Give me a little bit about yourbackground.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
My background.
I have a degree in politicalscience, which doesn't really
make a difference here Was inthe corporate world for many
years doing everything fromoffice management to executive
assistant and helped to actuallyrun 400 convenience stores at
one point in time as anexecutive assistant to a vice
president, and kind of needed achange in my life and answered a
(01:35):
Facebook ad believe it or not,it's for a gentleman who wanted
someone to help him managemultiple businesses.
So our founder and CEO is aserial entrepreneur.
He didn't need somebodyfull-time for everything and
somebody just to bounce ideasoff of, and from there this
(01:55):
concept grew.
He's like it's you help startit, you run it, and that's where
we are today.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Crazy.
So farm to veteran.
Now, how did it all begin?
What was the light bulb momentwhere it became an idea?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah.
So, like I said, our founderand CEO he was a serial
entrepreneur, got manyindustries, venture capitalism,
all that kind of stuff and atone point, through a lot of his
interactions, just said if Iever could do something for
veterans I would.
His interactions just said if Iever 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 southsuburbs of Chicago, for about an
(02:31):
hour and a half out of the city, which people are like wait,
chicago, like there's farms outthere.
but yeah, you get to a certainpoint in Illinois and it's
farmland and he started doingjust hobby farming, started with
20 chickens and liked it andthen hired on a farm manager,
was doing for-profit farmingmostly livestock and was coming
(02:52):
into the problem of just peopleweren't showing up anymore and
you have a dozen eggs that arewaiting for somebody and then it
spoils.
And he's like you know what?
I always want to do somethingfor veterans, let's see if we
can make it happen.
That's kind of when I came inand the three of us kind of sat
down, came up with this conceptand said let's see if we can
make it work Again.
At the beginning always bumpsalong the road, but we started
(03:15):
out with 20 chickens and kind ofjust an idea.
We now have, I think, over 400chickens on our farm.
We produce anywhere from 60 to100 dozen eggs a week that we
donate.
We also do pork and beef andit's even expanded to having
partner farmers across thecountry that we work with
(03:36):
farmers and ranchers to be ableto give food to veterans,
homegrown, farm grown.
I mean.
We have a produce partner thatprovides produce, we have
ranchers that help us with beefand pork and it's straight from
the farm to the veteran.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So what was so his?
His idea was to help veterans.
Why veterans?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
It's.
He's just kind of always had asoft spot for veterans.
He's a huge patriot.
Through his Lots of hisentrepreneurial endeavors he met
with veterans veterans thatwere doing well but had a friend
who was struggling whether thatwas struggling with addiction
or PTSD or whatever problem orthat they were presenting
(04:21):
themselves.
He was like I want to dosomething to help veterans that
they were presenting themselves.
He was like I want to dosomething to help veterans.
And when this whole conceptcame about, he's like well, what
if we just give them food, goodfood, and that then that can
help nurture their bodies, whichthen can help nurture their
minds, and then it's a wholedomino effect.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's amazing.
So it's.
It's in, as you said, theoutskirts of Chicago and are
y'all just in the state.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
We are not.
We've actually expanded to ninestates, that's amazing, are you
in Texas?
We are in Texas.
What when?
At Fort Worth, I believe.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Oh, the Dallas area.
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
So from the beginning, when youstarted working for veterans a
farm to veteran did you expectto be at this moment?
Did you see the growthoriginally, or what are you sure
?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
When I first started there was no farm to veteran, so
it was just a farm and thisconcept kind of came about.
And in the nonprofit worldwe're only five years old.
That's very, very young, and Inever thought that it would be
where it is today, nor theimpact.
They've lost over 20 pounds.
(05:34):
A1cs have gone down.
Somebody who is pre-diabetic isno longer pre-diabetic, based
on just eating healthier.
So it's just one of thosethings that you see, the impact
we started it was we're going togive a couple dozen eggs a week
, this and that, and it justkind of grew and grew and grew.
(05:55):
And I was lucky enough to haveour CEO just like make it happen
.
He goes, do what you need tomake it happen, he goes.
Let's see how far we can growthis.
And, believe me, I could growit even more, but it does take
funding.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So I could imagine the amount.
Now it's a 501 and you guysdonate 100%.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I'm just amazed.
I'm amazed by it.
So far, it says that y'all havedonated over 420,000 meals.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yes, since we started in over nine states.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
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 (06:40):
That's amazing, but when was COVID?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
2020.
We literally started at thebeginning.
Worst time ever to start anonprofit.
I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Especially trying to give away stuff, oh man.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So we count numbers from that first year, just
believe it or not because itprobably was not all going to
veterans and we don't want tocount veterans and we don't want
to count that.
So we don't even count ourfirst entire year.
And so 2020, there are nonumbers for 2020 of meals
donated.
We just basically say that wasour trial year, to see.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I believe that.
So how many, how big is thisfarm?
Let's, let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the farm here in Manhattan is 60 acres 60 acres.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, genius, yeah, that's.
I'm still.
I'm still blown away.
I'm thinking about it in myhead, the concept, the whole
concept behind it, and it's it'shard to find genuine people
trying to do good things in thisworld.
And, and me doing my researchon you guys, it's I get kind of
(07:43):
emotional, especially when itcomes to speaking about my
brothers and sisters in theveteran community.
I don't know what to say.
Besides, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
We just have this concept that veterans served us,
so now it's our turn to servethem.
I have veterans that have beenin my family.
Both my grandfathers wereveterans, great grandfathers,
everything like that and just tohear the stories, one of my
grandfathers actually was aHolocaust survivor.
He was not in the US military,but he was actually in the
(08:12):
Polish military and he wasactually saved by the United
States.
I wouldn't be here today if itwasn't for the military, and
that's where I always wanted todo something for them.
I have a lot of friends that aremilitary and it's great to go
into some of these locations andhear their stories and some of
(08:35):
them I mean, I have some80-year-old men that want to
tell me stories and have someonesit there and talk with them.
And it's not just about thefood but it's around the
conversations that happenbecause of the food.
We have monthly barbecues atone of the veteran homes that we
just go and I yes, I'm outthere flipping burgers and I
have one guy who critiques theway that I flip burgers.
(08:56):
He said, no, you can't, youcan't do that, You're going to
lose all the juice.
But then you just sit there andyou have a conversation and
that's probably one of myfavorite days of the month
because I can sit there andlisten to them and know that
somebody's actually wanting tohear their stories and it's just
so heartwarming and I will doanything that I possibly can to
(09:19):
make sure that veterans aretaken care of.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Okay, so in the future, what do you see in the
future?
What does Michelle see for farmto veteran?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So the future?
I honestly I have no idea.
The landscape has changed fornonprofits so much in the last
year.
What's Nice about ours is thatwe've never taken a cent of
government funding, so we wereincreased frequency.
I don't know that, but giventhe growth that we've had in the
(10:07):
last five years, I can onlyimagine that we're going to be
in more states, feeding moreveterans, working with more
farmers.
I just can't tell you the exactnumber at this point.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
That's awesome.
So, with you guys being a 501c3, how is the majority of your?
How do you raise funds?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So raising funds kind of has a little bit of a tiered
approach.
Obviously, we have a donationlink on our website under farm
to veterancom and that'sprobably the majority of where
the funding comes from.
We do have a few folks that arepretty big benefactors.
We do have events throughoutthe community like working with
local American legions, vfws,other veteran organizations.
(10:51):
We have a collaborativeapproach when it comes to
working with other veteranorganizations so that we're
always doing everything together.
So, whether or not it's like achili cook-off or a rib roast,
whatever, golf outing, all thekinds of community events.
We're very much into thecommunity and, yes, a lot of
those things are fundraisers andeverything like that, not big
(11:13):
dollar things, but just funthings that bring the community
together, bring the veteranstogether.
This year we're actually havingour first fundraiser gala, so
we're doing that in September,on September 20th at the Field
Museum in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You've got a big name coming in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
We actually have a couple big names.
So our headliner, of course, isDavid Spade.
He's going to be a comedian andwe actually just announced that
we do have a comedic host, TomTran, who's a US Army vet and
founder of GIs of Comedy.
So he's going to come and beour host and be an opener.
It's going to be an overallgood time.
A couple weeks ago, we actuallyhad an event called Voices of
(11:50):
Valor that we're hoping to maybeturn into a series where we had
Marcus Luttrell actually comeon, do a talk, learn about his
story and what he endured andjust his vision for the future
of veterans and what we can doto help them.
So that just happened a coupleof weeks ago.
But, yeah, like things likethat, we're trying to just get
(12:12):
the overall veteran that thepeople that can give the top
dollar and people that can givejust $5.
It takes us all to make thishappen.
People can give.
That's great, but there's justeven awareness of who we are is
fantastic that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
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 doesthe little walk-in every time
(12:48):
and he brings famous people, andI think he had brought Joe Dirt
in on one of them.
I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Hey, if Morgan Wallen wants to come to the gala too,
he's more than welcome.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
There you go.
Tell Joe Dirt to jump on that.
Yeah, that's awesome.
So people can donate and findout more information about your
nonprofit Farm to Veteran onfarmtoveterancom.
Yes, and what other events?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
do y'all have coming up?
The biggest thing on my mindright now is obviously the gala,
but have a rib cook officecoming up middle of August.
A couple other things thatwe're working on within the
community.
There's an organization calledWarriors Walk.
That's with preventing socialsuicide.
They do a 22 mile ruck walk.
That's in the local community,so we're helping out with that.
(13:40):
There's all kinds of just localcommunity events in the
Chicagoland area.
I mean, those are our biggestevents right now, but there's
always more things coming up.
We list them on our events pageas they come up.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So are you able to name any of the veteran
organizations that y'all partnerwith?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Absolutely so.
One of our biggest partners isVolunteers of America.
They have here in Illinois.
They have two locations that wework with, primarily One in
Joliet that's called Hope Manor.
It's a subsidized housingprogram for veterans, Whether
they're facing addiction,recovery or PTSD.
It's definitely helping outwith them.
(14:20):
And then that same organizationhas affiliates across the
country that have similarprograms.
So we're in the Volunteers ofAmerica in Florida, Texas,
Michigan, Indiana, Colorado andWashington State.
And then we work with a placein Iowa called Freedom
Foundation, as well as otherorganizations like St Leo's,
(14:43):
which is through CatholicCharities that has a veterans
program, Veterans New Beginnings.
We also work with MantenoVeterans Home, which is a
government housed veteransorganization, as well as some VA
locations that havehomelessness programs or
unhoused folks, just to kind ofget everybody across the board.
But then we work with otherorganizations that are you folks
, just to kind of get everybodyacross the board.
(15:03):
But then we work with otherorganizations that are, you know
, just kind of trying to bringawareness to any veteran causes,
Like I mentioned, the WarriorsWalk Veterans Garage, which
helps veterans.
They restore military vehiclesand bring a purpose back to them
.
They're fantastic, they're atall of our events and we call
them our sister charity.
They call us their sistercharity.
(15:24):
Like we just we kind of doeverything kind of together and
it's always nice when you bringa Humvee.
We had an event where weactually went to one of the
house locations.
It was around Christmas timeand we actually had Santa in the
Humvee picking up through theturret and came to see all the
kids that were living there.
(15:45):
So it was a great event.
But great partners that I have,Obviously our local American
legions and VFWs and all thosethings.
They're a great help.
We worked with Ritz-KopfAmerica because we have a local
cemetery here and just a lot ofcommunity support and a lot of
community organizations that wedefinitely work with as well as
making sure we have I mean,there's local veterans
(16:08):
assistance commissions we workwith as well.
So we want to get to thoseplaces where veterans are
already going, so that it's kindof a one-stop shop.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Michelle, I'm going to be honest with you.
I normally have a lot ofquestions and I'm just blown
away by the fact that I justrecently learned about Farm to
Veteran and I'm going to yelly'all's name from the rooftop
and try to help you as much as Ican.
As far as donations sodonations are done through the
(16:44):
website Did they follow you onsocial media or any social
medias you'd like to plug?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, we're on Facebook, instagram, Twitter or
I think it's called X now youknow who knows LinkedIn.
We're on all the major socialmedias, but it's farm the number
two veteran on all of them.
Our website has a lot ofinformation.
If there's anything that youcan email us, have any questions
, we have a phone number there.
We're always willing to talk.
(17:09):
If there's farmers that want topartner, if there's
organizations that want topartner, we can absolutely make
a conversation and figure outwhere we can go from there.
We'd like to help as manypeople as we possibly can, but
obviously it takes a lot to makesure that this all happens and
I always want to make sure thatwe are doing our best for
(17:30):
everybody that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Michelle has been great talking to you and I hope
that we can have you on again inthe future and just learn more
about the progress.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Thank you.
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