Feeding God's Children Today and Tomorrow

Nestled in the fertile Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington sits the Campbell Farm—a 40-acre working farm located on the Yakama reservation. Farm owners and local volunteers work hard with limited resources to provide healthy meals for youth whose parents are financially strained when it comes to buying groceries. Sometimes that amounts to limited and often unhealthy food.

“The farm has been my safe haven in times of trouble,” says 14-year-old Lane’ya, a visitor to the farm every year since she was six. “It helped me to understand some of the storms in my life and … look at the positive stuff I have to offer.”

Your gifts to ELCA World Hunger support a year-round outreach program at the Campbell Farm to American Indian and Latino children who live on the reservation. The program provides two nutritional meals for 50 children each week during the school year and three meals per week for 100 children during the summer.

The Yakima Valley is one of the more fruitful regions of the United States. The rich volcanic soil and arid temperatures provide the perfect environment to grow many specialty crops such as apples, cherries, grapes and hops. This major agricultural center offers a snapshot of the spectacle of modern farming: today we produce more food on less land than any other time in history. At the same time, we are pushing the limits of production. In 40 years when the global population levels off at around nine billion people, we will likely be dealing with significant questions about water rights. And our land could be struggling to produce high yields as soils are exhausted.

The Campbell Farm provides visitors an opportunity to appreciate simple abundance and practice stewardship of the land. The farm used to grow hops, but today its primary crop is apples, both conventional and organic. Farming has always been central to the operation of the Campbell Farm, and its owners continue to explore best practices in sustainable agriculture. Hands-on work puts farm visitors in touch (literally) with their food and provides a space to reflect on environmental stewardship. This deep knowledge about where food comes from and the issues facing the farmers who produce it is an important first step toward combating hunger in the future.

“[Last] summer, I liked that we worked at the Union Gospel Mission feeding homeless people,” says Rubi, who is 11 years old. “I started coming when I was seven. They help me when I am sick and take me to my doctor appointments.” Rubi underwent brain surgery last winter where doctors removed part of a growing cancerous tumor. The people at the Campbell Farm treat her like family and make sure her needs are met.

ELCA World Hunger recognizes the crucial importance of sustainable agriculture, both in the United States and around the world. For this reason we support local subsistence farmers, community gardens and other important ministries like the Campbell Farm.