May 6—GREENSBURG — 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," GDC Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dawn Lowe said.

The Ag Day Breakfast, which was held in 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.

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," Lowe said.

All three local FFA chapters have indicated the donations will help support and offset their costs of attending the state convention 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 8th 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 — the 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," Lowe said. "Plans are well underway for next year's event and we are excited to continue bringing quality programming to Decatur County."

The GDC Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit, membership-based organization founded in 1906 with the goal of supporting local businesses by providing strategic leadership, advocacy and resources for its members.

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