A couple weeks ago I wrote about the community support at the Missouri Valley Chamber of Commerce's annual awards banquet.
This week, I am writing about the turnout at the Sherer family's award presentation.
At the Pisgah United Methodist Church last Friday, there had to have been upwards of 100 people packed into the fellowship hall to support the Sherer family for receiving the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award. I would be curious to see what the official number was.
This marked the first recipient from Harrison County, and I'm going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say they weren't just there for the food. Fittingly, it was Staley's catering service that provided the broasted chicken.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said that, with soaring egg prices and hard-hitting losses to Iowa farmers due to the bird flu outbreak, now is a good time to educate people on who these farm families are that risk their capital and how food actually gets to your table, your favorite restaurant and your favorite grocery store.
While that education is important and necessary for the people who need it, it isn't as much so for the people of Harrison County. It is embedded into the culture and fabric of the community.
I saw many faces, familiar and unfamiliar, who know exactly what the work that goes into maintaining a farming operation looks like. Many of the people present were farmers themselves, or at least have some connection to the agriculture industry through their work or their family.
According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, there were 794 farms in Harrison County at the time. The average size of each farm was 478 acres. I'm not sure what those numbers are today, but if it wasn't obvious already, this is the definition of a farming community.
Congratulations again to the Sherer family. You have a community behind you which understands, respects and appreciates the work that you do. When it comes to our relationships with others, what more could we really ask for?
When Jason Sherer took the microphone, the main point he wanted to get across was that he had been blessed beyond measure and that we all need to pay it forward. I was left with the impression that such an award didn't encourage the Sherer family to stop and rest on their laurels, but rather to become even more motivated to serve others.
Hopefully we all can aspire to such an attitude.
