One A-maize-ing Story

Every year, Ellington cattle farmer Dan Bahler grows 2,000 acres of corn to feed his livestock. He also sets aside extra acres to grow sweet corn for his family, employees, and the surrounding community. He plants every two weeks during the summer until the middle of July so that he’ll have enough for the fall season. He oversees 30 employees, and at harvest time his family joins in to pick the corn. 

Farmer Dan and some of his sweet corn at the Regional Market

About five years, ago, Dan called up Foodshare because he had some extra sweet corn for us to glean. What’s different about this routine procedure is that Dan kept growing extra corn and delivering it with his friends and fellow church members to our facility at the Regional Market in Hartford. Now, he grows a whole field of sweet corn every year and brings thousands of pounds of extra corn to the Regional Market, Hockanum Valley Community Council, or Cornerstone in Rockville. 

For Dan, this is how he gives back to the community. “We’ve got the land; we can do this,” he said. Of all of our donors, Dan is the only one that does it this way. He goes above and beyond the call: he expects no payment in return – not for gas, labor, or anything.

It is people like Dan Bahler who are essential to the Movement to Solve Hunger. The Movement isn’t just about tabling at events. It isn’t just sorting food at either of our locations. It isn’t only about joining a Hunger Action Team. The Movement is about you. What are your passions? What are your skillsets? How can you use them to enact change in our community?