Employee-led Food Drive Strives to Fight Hunger Close to Home

WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - Oct. 15, 2012 - This week, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) and FBL Financial Group (NYSE:FFG) kick off a new joint effort to fight local food insecurity through a week-long, company-wide food drive to bring much-needed support to Iowa food banks. The food drive coincides with the organizations' sponsorship of the World Food Prize Foundation's Iowa Hunger Summit, held Oct. 16 in Des Moines. This is the second year of the organizations' five-year joint sponsorship of the Iowa Hunger Summit.

The Iowa Hunger Summit is expected to bring together 500 leaders from across the state to explore how building food security helps fight hunger and to showcase efforts that raise awareness of local, national and global issues of poverty, hunger and nutrition.

"Iowa farmers strive to raise a variety of food at a variety of price options, which brings more choices to more Americans," said Craig Hill, IFBF president. "This is important to help increase food security in Iowa and around the world. The key, however, is to embrace innovation and technology in farming practices to enable us to meet growing consumer needs."

"We're proud to sponsor the Iowa Hunger Summit with Iowa Farm Bureau, and be part of an initiative that leads the charge against hunger and poverty, spotlighting the achievements of organizations that bring food insecurity to the forefront and inspire others to act," said FBL Financial Group Chief Executive Officer Jim Brannen.

In addition to the local food drive, IFBF will support the Iowa Food Bank Association during its America Needs Farmers Game Day Oct. 20 when the Iowa Hawkeye football team plays Penn State (www.americaneedsfarmers.org).

"It's a great opportunity to not only raise awareness of what our farmers do to raise the food we need, but to raise funds for the food bank," said Hill. "For every one dollar donated, the Food Bank of Iowa can provide two pounds of food to those in need. Just like we still believe in Norman Borlaug's vision of feeding more needing people through agricultural technology and innovative methods, we support this organization's ability to make the most of those donations."

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About Iowa Farm Bureau

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is a grassroots, statewide organization dedicated to enhancing the People, Progress and Pride of Iowa.  More than 153,000 families in Iowa are Farm Bureau members, working together to achieve farm and rural prosperity.  For more information about Farm Bureau and agriculture, visit the online media center at www.iowafarmbureau.com.

About FBL Financial Group, Inc.

FBL Financial Group is a holding company whose insurance companies go to market under the Farm Bureau Financial Services brand. Through an exclusive, multi-state agent force, the companies affiliated with the Farm Bureau Financial Services brand underwrite, market and distribute a broad range of insurance and financial services products to individuals, families and businesses. For more information, please visit www.fblfinancial.com or www.fbfs.com.

About the Iowa Hunger Summit

The World Food Prize Foundation established the Iowa Hunger Summit as a means to celebrate Iowa's great successes in fighting hunger and poverty, and to unite in further action against both. The Iowa Hunger Summit, first held in 2007, seeks to gather leaders from across Iowa representing community organizations, business and industry, state and local government, social agencies, churches and religious communities, schools and universities, and other groups that lead or participate in projects to confront hunger.

I was born to be a physician.  My grandfather was one of two black students in the 1911 graduating class of Starling Ohio Medical College.  He dedicated his life to medicine and helping the low-income folks of Lima, Ohio.  My father became an Army Air Force flight surgeon at Tuskegee.  As a general practitioner in San Diego, he charged patients what they could afford. Many times we were paid in tamales.

Then came Medicaid. It prohibited doctors from being able to use charity like this. We had high hopes when The Great Society was born: the end of poverty, the end of racial strife.  These poverty programs were good intentions gone awry.  What social engineer devised a diabolical program forcing a mother in hardship to eject her children's father from the house in order to get financial assistance?  The road to hell began with this kind of "social justice." Common sense tells me that families in trouble would derive strength from staying together.

The results of the disintegration of the family are fully evident.  Unwed motherhood has almost tripled since the 1960s War on Poverty.  Seventy-two per cent of Black and fifty-three per cent of Hispanic children are now born to single mothers.  Single motherhood quadruples the chance of living in poverty.

Things have gotten worse, not better.  Politicians are so arrogant they tell people to "Trust me!" based on faith, not facts.  Are we to believe that it works to treat people like helpless victims?  The fact is the poverty rate has not changed in 40 years. Are we to believe that a check from a distant rich Uncle (Sam) can erase core problems such as distrust of authority figures, poor education, promiscuity, drug addiction, and violence?  The facts show no.

Are we to believe that the federal government is effective at public education?  The facts show that the high school dropout rate has remained the same for 40 years, despite the fact that trillions of federal dollars were poured into education.  We must support alternatives that offer parental options for educational opportunity.  A good education leads to self-reliance and social responsibility.  This in turn leads to a good job.

Are we to believe that Medicaid "leveled the playing field" for patients?  The fact is that fewer and fewer physicians can take Medicaid due to payments below the cost of providing the services. Where is the "social justice" in a health care system where NO one has quality, individualized care?

We have to change Washington's way of thinking from "if a social program fails, expand it" to "if it fails, dismantle it."  Today's policies lead to unhealthy dependence on the federal government.  We need instead to encourage independence and freedom.  Everyone - at all income levels - suffer from these government-controlled programs because we have more fatherless and poorly-educated children.

Safety nets don't cure poverty.  Education and jobs cure poverty.  Family and community are the institutions through which we should help each other.  Voting for government bureaucracy is not a surrogate for personally giving our time.  Community aid is not only direct, more efficient, and more effective, it is personal.  Our personal relationships are crucial to maintaining our civil society.

We can't let politicians use our differences as a wedge to divide.  The rhetoric of class warfare fosters resentment and envy.  Class warfare does not sow the seeds of success. Our free enterprise system and the free market of ideas have brought more prosperity and a higher standard of living to the greatest number of people, regardless of race or color.

A free market built on integrity should be protected.  We cannot let it be destroyed by excessive entanglement of government with business and crony capitalism.  We can use existing laws to weed out bad apples.  We do not need suffocating regulations and government control for all.

Finally, we must protect one of the most intimate and life-sustaining bonds in our society: the patient-doctor relationship.  Patients entrust their secrets to doctors.  How comfortable does it make you feel to know that the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology is watching...or using your personal medical records against you?

Touching lives one at a time is why I became a doctor.  Fighting for what's best for patients is what I do as a physician.   These days, physicians must also fight in the political realm so that people can take back control of their own lives.

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"Arlen Specter and I were first elected to the United States Senate the same year, and I served with him on the Judiciary Committee for 30 years.  We came from very different places, an Iowa farmer and a Philadelphia lawyer, and we had different views, but we shared a commitment to making the legislative process work in the Senate.  Sen. Specter was a friend to his colleagues, and he served Pennsylvanians with his tenacity and willingness to fight hard no matter what the challenge."

SPRINGFIELD, IL (10/13/2012)(readMedia)-- The U.S. Department of Defense has approved an Innovative Readiness Training project that will allow the Airmen of the 183rd Civil Engineer Squadron, 183rd Fighter Wing to build affordable, safe and decent housing with Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County in local low-income neighborhoods.

183rd Fighter Wing Commander Col. Michael Meyer announced the partnership today with representatives from Habitat for Humanity and the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association at the site of the first project, a two-story townhouse that will be built at 1137 North 5th Street, Springfield.

"This is a win-win for both the Illinois Air National Guard, Habitat for Humanity, and - most importantly - local low-income families," said Illinois National Guard Assistant Adjutant General - Air Brig. Gen. William Cobetto. "Our Airmen practice the skills they need to perform their military missions and, through Habitat for Humanity, local families get decent safe housing."

The project is scheduled for three years and the 183rd CES will help build as many as 12 homes in Sangamon County. Three of those homes are slated to be built in Springfield's Enos Park Neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity will provide the building materials and supplies as well as meals for the Airmen working on the project and the Airmen will provide the labor and tradesman skills they acquired from their military training.

"As the Commander-in-Chief of the Illinois National Guard, I am so proud that Illinois was one of a handful of states to administer an Innovative Readiness Training Project approved by the Department of Defense," Gov. Pat Quinn said. "This project will improve the training of our men and women in uniform and strengthen the communities where they live and work."

This isn't the first DoD-approved Innovative Readiness Training project for the 183rd CES. Last year, approximately 35 members of the squadron helped construct a 3,200-square-foot adult programs building for the St. Michaels Association for Special Education in the heart of Navajo Nation in Arizona.

"My Airmen really enjoyed helping the Navaho Nation, but this project is even better," Meyer said. "Now they are helping their own communities in their own state. This is very special to us."

To acquire DoD assistance through the Innovative Readiness Training program, Habitat for Humanity had to submit an approval packet that underwent legal, fiscal and operational scrutiny. The local nonprofit had to prove the IRT would not put the military in competition with local contractors, would be a fiscally responsible use of military training funds and the work performed would accurately exercise the military skills the Airmen would need to perform their military mission. The 183rd CES' wartime mission is to build structures in support of military operations.

Airmen with the 183rd Civil Engineer Squadron, 183rd Fighter Wing help construct a home with Habitat for Humanity through an Innovative Readiness Training project in Springfield, Oct. 13.