THE MILL AT JANIE’S FARM TO SUPPLY REGENERATIVE ORGANIC OATS TO MIDWEST HOSPITAL
REGENERATIVE FARM TO HOSPITAL MIDWEST PILOT KICKS OFF
The Mill at Janie’s Farm resides in a nondescript warehouse on the edge of Ashkum, Illinois, a tiny farming community of 850 nestled along I 57 about 75 miles south of Chicago. The Mill is owned by Harold Wilken and his family. Harold, a 4th generation grain farmer, opened the mill in 2017 to expand the enterprise opportunities on his family’s 2,500 acre organic farm. Harold is a forward minded farmer, both in his care for the rich, black soil he farms in east central Illinois — rated as some of the best soils on Earth — as well as in his care for the people who eat the grains he grows.
In 2002 Harold’s neighboring landowner Herman Brockman asked Harold to transition the Brockman farm to organic production. Harold took on the challenge and soon gained experience and confidence in organic farming practices. As a result, Harold and son Ross started to transition his own farm to organic in 2005. Farming without chemical inputs, pesticides or herbicides saves the farming operation on this expense, but more importantly to Harold, it keeps these chemicals out of the food chain and out of the ecosystem. Fourteen years after the organic transition, Janie’s farm now specializes in organic, food grade grains — wheat, corn, soy, rye, oats, and buckwheat; along with heirloom varieties — which Harold grows in a rotation with cover crops like rye, wheat, alfalfa and medium red clover, ensuring a living root is growing in the rich soil year-round. Not only does this help protect the soil from erosion from harsh winter winds, intensifying spring rainfalls, and soil moisture loss in the summer heat, but also enriches the soil with nitrogen and carbon that feed plant roots and soil fungi. Soil fungi act as a living network in the soil, exchanging critical nutrients that feed the growing plants.
Harold’s farming practices are watched closely by farmers across his area. Since his organic transition, he has helped many multi-generational farms transition their farms from conventional chemical agriculture to organic cultivation. While nationally, certified organic cropland still makes up about 1% of food production, in recent years more Midwest farmers are considering and making the transition to organic certification. As the price for conventionally grown GMO corn and soybeans has continued to decline due to tariffs and changes in the global marketplace, including rapidly increasing consumer demand for organic grain, more farmers are looking to organic certification as a way to keep their farming operations profitable. In Illinois alone there has been a 17% increase in certified organic corn and soybean farms over 2018. (https://non-gmoreport.com/articles/organic-corn-and-soybean-acres-shrink-this-year-following-a-challenging-spring/)
Harold got the idea for a grain mill in 2015 to bring a value-added product to the growing artisan bakery market in nearby Chicago. He purchased the warehouse in Ashkum near his farm in 2016 and installed two Denmark made stone mills — a modern version that preserves the ancient stone milling technology. In 2017 he opened The Mill at Janie’s Farm and hired Jill Brockman-Cummings to manage the operation. Jill received hands on training in the science and art of stone milling by other stone millers and has refined her expertise in grinding the many varieties of whole kernel flours, bran and whole grains, such as wheat and rye berries, that Harold grows and sources from other farmers. She grinds the grain using cold temperatures that preserve the nutrients and maintain the flavor of the whole grains.
Harold began supplying whole grain flours and other mill products to bakers in the Chicago area in 2018 and has now expanded his supply of milled grains throughout the region. In 2019 he began exploring the growing market for organic oats used in snack bars, granola, oat milk, and oat cereal. Processing food grade oats to preserve the nutrient density, taste and shelf stability requires a specialized piece of equipment made in South Africa to heat treat the oats. The equipment would require its own room, and Harold’s warehouse would need to expand to accommodate it. Without a clear market for the oatmeal, the decision to invest in the equipment would be risky.
In Spring 2019, Erin Meyer, founder and CEO of Basil’s Harvest, a Chicago-based non-profit focused on the system connecting food, farms and health, approached longtime friend and colleague Harold about his interest in supplying local regeneratively grown organic oats to hospitals in his region. Meyer had initiated a collaboration with Health Care Without Harm to implement their Regenerative Farm to Hospital Pilot in Illinois through her work with ReGenerate Illinois, an Illinois coalition seeking to advance regenerative agriculture. Health Care Without Harm is a global non-profit that works with healthcare systems and hospitals to operate more sustainably with less impact to the environment. Meyer learned that Health Care Without Harm was in the planning stages of the Regenerative Farm to Hospital Pilot to connect farms that are regenerating soils by using effective soil health practices with a nearby hospital that is interested in sourcing local foods and learning about the benefits for farm and community health of food crops grown with regenerative practices.
Meyer, a Registered Dietitian and chef, had also approached her colleague Golda Ewalt, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois about participating in the Regenerative Farm to Hospital Pilot. While issues of scale, quality and cost often limit the ability of large institutions to source locally grown foods, Ewalt jumped at the opportunity to source locally grown and milled organic oats into food service at Peoria’s OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. Like most hospitals, OSF Saint Francis’ dining services serves nutritious, healing oatmeal to patients at every meal 365 days a year. Ewalt, also a Registered Dietician and professional chef, knows that high quality, shelf stable oats could be integrated into numerous menu items, expanding their use in patient meals. Her goal is to serve the best tasting oats in Peoria to encourage patients to incorporate them in their diet when they leave the hospital.
With the farmer, miller, and hospital on board, Meyer and collaborator Carol Hays, an experienced systems change leader, consultant, and ReGenerate Illinois co-founder, set out to find resources to fund the Regenerative Farm to Hospital Pilot in Illinois, with the goal of developing an example that could inspire hospitals across the Chicago area. Not only would this new supply chain bring healthier whole grains to people whose health is challenged but would also create new market opportunities for other farmers like Harold and for Harold’s milling operation. Meyer and Hays sought funding from the Chicago-based Kinship Foundation’s Food Land Opportunity grant program administered in collaboration with the Chicago Community Trust. The multiyear Food Land Opportunity initiative aims to create a resilient local food economy that protects and conserves land and other natural resources while promoting market innovation and building wealth and assets in the Chicago region’s farming and food economy. In September 2019 their collaborative pilot was awarded a grant by the Kinship Foundation to initiate the project.
The pilot’s three goals are to facilitate the purchase of oats by the hospital from The Mill at Janie’s Farm, integrate the oats in various menu items prepared by hospital dining services while minimizing food waste, and tell a compelling story about the benefits of purchasing and serving oats grown on local organic farms that also are working to ensure healthy soil.
Back at the mill, Harold has added a systems quality manager to ensure that the needed food handling certifications are in place and carefully followed by the mill to meet hospital specifications. Harold expects his new oat processing equipment to arrive from South Africa this fall and to begin processing and delivering oats to the hospital in late Spring 2020. To meet the demand that he expects to quickly grow as a result of the pilot, Harold is already working with two other area farmers who are growing organic oats in a soil regenerating system and looking to expand their market opportunities.
Meyer and Hays hope that this pilot, an initiative of their Regenerative Agriculture in the Heartland collaboration, will be the kickstart to a new market opportunity for farmers who are willing to take the extra steps to protect the health of their soils and dramatically reduce or eliminate chemical inputs while growing nutritious grains that taste great and help people recover their health.
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Basil’s Harvest, in partnership with Health Care Without Harm’s (HCWH) national Regenerate Land and Health initiative, is leading HCWH’s Midwest regenerative farm to hospital pilot project. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a successful procurement relationship between a hospital and farms practicing regenerative agriculture, telling the story of its multiple system benefits, and elevating regenerative agriculture as an effective vehicle for achieving climate and health goals.
Regenerative Agriculture in the Heartland is a collaboration of Basil’s Harvest and The Strategic Collaboration Group, Inc.
Copyright 2019 The Strategic Collaboration Group, Inc.
