The GDC Chamber/Dec. Co. Farm Bureau gives back 100% of profits from 2023
Ag Day Breakfast
The Greensburg/Decatur County Chamber of Commerce and Decatur County Farm
Bureau collaborate every year to bring the community what is becoming a very highly-
anticipated and well-attended Ag Day Breakfast.
The purpose of the Ag Day Breakfast is to support the ag industry in and around
Decatur County by providing education through keynote speakers, marketing through
sponsorships and networking opportunities.
This year’s event saw a record attendance of 187 people with students from
Greensburg, North Decatur, South Decatur and Jac Cen Del High Schools represented.
“We absolutely love having the opportunity to pour into our youth here in Decatur
County and are thankful we have a program geared toward those who are either
currently involved in or plan to be part of our farming community,” said Dawn Lowe,
Executive Director for the GDC Chamber.
The Ag Day Breakfast, which was held this past February, was hugely successful and
because of that, the committee comprised of both Chamber and Farm Bureau board
members, decided to give 100% of the profits from the event back to local organizations
for this year.
This year’s donation recipients were the FFA chapters from all three Decatur County
schools as well as Meals on Wheels and Farmers Feeding the Flock.
Each year a representative from the Farmers Feeding the Flock program announces the
local farm family who will donate acreage used to raise that year’s crop. The sale of the
crop then helps offset costs for expansion and inputs for the Greensburg Bread of Life,
an organization who assists the community with hunger relief by providing meals for the
working poor, those who are jobless/homeless, elderly who are on a fixed income and
families dealing with hardships/illness.
Assisting and supporting an organization that helps with managing food insecurities
made a lot of sense to the Ag Day Breakfast committee which is also where the notion
of helping the organization Meals on Wheels came from.
Meals on Wheels delivers well-balanced meals to those who are in need in and around
Decatur County, especially those 60 years and older.
“As with many organizations in our community, these two organizations are working
really hard to support those in need here in our communities and we know it takes a
village to help support their efforts. We are grateful to be a small part of that village,”
commented Lowe.
All three local FFA chapters have indicated the donations will help support and offset
their costs of attending the state convention which is held every year in June.
During the 2023 Ag Day Breakfast, keynote speaker Bruce Kettler, CEO and President-
Agribusiness Council of Indiana – spoke on the topic of Succession Planning. Did you
know that Indiana is the 8 th largest agriculture state? Did you know that it is a $35 billion
industry for Indiana? Did you know that 96% of the farms in Indiana are family owned
and operated? Kettler brought these facts and many more which was also supported by
the fact that 85% of the acreage in Decatur County is farm ground. What does all of this
mean?
“We feel it supports the mission of our two organizations [GDC Chamber and Decatur
County Farm Bureau] to continue supporting this industry. Agriculture is obviously very
alive and prevalent not just here in Decatur County, but in our state as well,” said Lowe.
“Plans are well underway for next year’s event and we are excited to continue bringing
quality programming to Decatur County.”
