Steve Austvold offered our invocation, and Wally Cole was our song leader. David Johnson introduced our student guests from the high school, Brook Zierden and Rylee Kubela. Brook was one of our RYLA students last summer. Her parents are Damon and Tonya. She participates in hockey, volleyball and track, is a National Honor Society student and plans on attending the University of Wisconsin - Stout, in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Rylee Kubela, daughter of Blair and Tammy Jordahl, is also a NHS student and participates in more activities than I could get written down, but they included swimming and marching bank. She plans on attending NDSU next year and wants to become a radiology scientist.
There was a Rotary Minute Plus Quiz based on the cover of the March Rotary magazine and one of three questions were answered correctly, proving that Rotarians find more worth in what is inside than on the cover. Club members will have a chance to prove that this coming week when they will get some questions on the stories in the magazine. President Ryan told us he will be away the next two weeks and that Lisa McFarland will preside during his absence. He also told us the voting results were in and by a wide margin club members decided we will stay at the Salvation Army for our meetings.
For our brags and fines, Tim Hunt reported the good news that Desta was coming home the next day. Jamie Larson was happy to have Joel Haugen and Ryan Garvin with us as part of the program for the day. Kathy Austvold pointed out how hard Ryan Welle had worked to bring us to a decision on where we should meet and thanked him for that. Wally Cole told us he was able to get some emergency work done on his teeth and that he is now embarking on a three-month process to get his dental problems resolved. He also said if Zack Stach had been able to make the meeting, he would have bragged about his daughter performing in the middle school orchestra concert the previous evening. I believe Wally or someone else suggested Zack should put in $5 next time he is with us for the brag Wally did on his behalf.
Lisa introduced Ashley Armstrong, who talked to us about the OtterCare Community Initiative. She described it as a way to bring back self-sufficiency to our community. She told us some about her own history, discharged from the Army in 2008 and taking care of four children with her boyfriend, the former since adopted and the latter since married, when food was so scarce that only the children could eat sometimes. She described how hunger made her angry and then told us that in Fergus Falls about 36% of our population cannot afford their basic needs even though just making enough to be considered above the poverty level. The focus of the 501(c)(3) organization is to reduce hunger, poverty and waste in Fergus Falls and it is working on opening up a "pay what you can" whole food marketplace. To get started, Ashley reached out to Joel Haugen who is now running his family's farm and formed Acres of Asher to offer quality food locally. Joel then spoke to us, and he said it was his vision to build a decentralized parallel economy to Ashley's non-profit world. He sees this as a revolution in our thinking, returning to quality over an emphasis on quality. Joel has been farming for 17 years, starting out conventionally, then moving on to organic farming and now doing regenerative or circular farming. He and his family raise chickens and beef cows and enough crops to feed the animals, selling the meat and eggs off the farm. They have about 4000 open range chickens, 30 head of cattle and about 280 acres to feed all of them. The eggs are sold locally at Service Food and Dutchmen Organics, and, in total, he markets his products through five or six grocery stores. Right now, the problem is keeping up with demand.
Joel said that currently almost every food item we buy travels on average of 1500 miles to reach us. If I heard correctly, he also said that about 60% of what is sold as "organic" food comes from outside our country. Regenerative farming listens to the needs of the land and treats the animals well. Unlike organic farming, a regenerative farmer will treat chickens that are sick, but that does not mean filling them up with antibiotics. Acres of Asher is offering membership in its Hub & Spoke Community for a one-time admission fee of $150 and thereafter $20 annually which membership will provide members discounts on their purchases of its or other associated regenerative farmers' products. Acres of Asher's website says the membership exists to help build a parallel food economy -- one where communities are fed first by nearby farms and processors, not dependent on distant, centralized supply chains. It is all about protecting local food access and rebuilding the foundations that make it possible. To find out more you can go to acresofasher.com. For information on the OtterCare Community Initiative, go to ottercare.org.
