Note: This is the second blog in an occasional series featuring visits with Center supporters. Read about Erin's visits in Iowa here.
You likely saw our 2024 donor list in the last issue, if you’re a regular newsletter reader. Did you notice the U.S. map we printed alongside the list? This map indicates that we have donors from 42 states, plus Washington, D.C. This is quite the spread! We don’t take for granted that people from around the country want to be part of our grassroots movement to build a just and prosperous rural future.
Many folks who donate have rural backgrounds. Others don’t, and they don’t need to. They see the value of our work and understand how rural and urban are intertwined. Our supporters share the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to participate fully in cultural and economic life, no matter where they live. And our community embraces our shared responsibility to steward the environment and put in place forward-thinking, community-driven plans that prepare for a changing climate and a changing world.
In my role as development manager with the Center, I’m privileged to get to know many of the thoughtful and action-oriented people who put their states on our supporter map. Last fall, I took the opportunity to visit a few of our dedicated Pennsylvania-based supporters.
Gretchen Hall came across the Center’s work during the farm credit crisis in the 1980s. In those years, Gretchen worked for an organization which, like ours, advocated and lobbied for family farmers. She connected with our staff and traveled to Nebraska to accompany us on a series of farm tours. Her trip marked the beginning of her decades-long enthusiastic support of the Center.
Although physically distant from the Center’s home base, Gretchen believes national advocacy is a key way to contribute to our efforts. She lobbies her members of Congress about legislation important to the Center’s work.
When I visited Gretchen and her husband, David Sa’adah, we delighted in looking through old photos from Gretchen’s time in Nebraska.
On my way out—after enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal, rich conversation about rural housing, and a tour of their community garden—she packed up the photos and sent them with me for our archives. Back in Lyons, Farm and Community Assistant Director Wyatt Frass and I sat together as he identified photos and told stories about farmers featured in the pictures.
Another longtime Center friend who puts Pennsylvania on our map is Ruth Tonachel. Ruth grew up in New York City but always felt she had a rural heart. From a young age, she identified with her grandparents’ home place, a farm in rural Pennsylvania. She got a degree in agriculture and even ran a farm newspaper before moving to rural Alabama for grad school. When Ruth got the offer to take on the role of public affairs director for the Center for Rural Affairs, she made the big move to small town Nebraska.
Following a death in her family, she returned east sooner than planned but remained inspired by her time with the Center. In fact, within a few years, she and two others with direct experience at the Center were among the founding members of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Ag (now called Pasa Sustainable Ag).
Over the years, Ruth immersed herself in rural living, writing and advocating for ag and arts and collective farm projects like the subsistence backyard meat chickens she and her neighbors raise together.
On the beautiful fall day we were able to visit in person, we were within earshot of those happy hens and within sight of her grandson and my daughter playing in the backyard sandbox. Ruth and I talked about navigating difficult discussions with our neighbors and of the importance of human connection and creative outlets to stay sane and grounded. Suffice it to say, I left the state feeling a lot more of both.
Gretchen, David, Ruth, and many more in Pennsylvania, whom I hope to connect with on my next trip, may be 1,200 miles from our home office, but they know the Center’s mission and impact encompass communities far beyond Nebraska and Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. We fight for seats at the table for family farmers, small business owners, Native and new Americans, and working and middle class rural people who are out there putting in the work every day, fighting for a better tomorrow.
So get out there, folks, and talk to your neighbors, your friends, your representatives—heck, even a stranger on the sidewalk. You need someone to talk to, give me a call at 402.499.2781.
Can you help us reach supporters in all 50 states plus D.C. this year? Make sure your state is on our map by making a donation at cfra.org/give or sending a check to P.O. Box 136, Lyons, NE 68038. Last year, we were missing Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Carolina.
Feature photos: Erin Schoenberg, the Center’s development manager, visited supporters in Pennsylvania last fall. During one visit, long-time rural advocate and friend of the Center, Gretchen Hall, showed Erin a photo album from her introduction to our organization during the farm credit crisis in the 1980s. Gretchen worked for an organization which, like ours, advocated and lobbied for family farmers. She connected with our staff and traveled to Nebraska to accompany us on a series of farm tours. Pictured are photos from the farm tours. Do you recognize anyone? Do you remember these tours? Email or call Erin at [email protected] or 402.499.2781. | Photos submitted
