Farmers learn sustainable, environmentally sound agricultural techniques.
In the 1930s, a civil war raged in Spain. Dan West, a Midwestern farmer and Church of the Brethren youth worker, ladled out cups of milk to hungry children on both sides of the conflict. He asked his friends back home to donate heifers, a young cow that has not borne a calf, so hungry families could feed themselves. In return, they could help another family become self-reliant by passing on to them one of their gift animal s female calves. The idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for more than 50 years.