“They call me ‘the corn man’ at camp. I don’t think it’s that large of a deal, but I can tell you about it,” said Jeff Gebhardt, a row crop farmer who grows corn, soybeans, and wheat near Salisbury in #Agri-Ready Designated Chariton County. Jeff plants more than an acre of sweet corn on his farm each summer and when it is harvested by hand during the hottest part of the summer, most is donated to Kids Across America Camps. Missouri farmers like Jeff work so that the bounty they produce impacts the lives of others, often quietly doing good while not accepting much recognition.

Recognizing a Need

Sixteen years ago, Jeff, his wife and their four kids enjoyed ministry and refreshment at the Kanakuk KAUAI Family Camp in the Branson, Mo. area, an experience that included a day of service. “The first year we went the lake had been flooded and left the shorelines of several camps littered and unusable. As a service project our family was asked to help clean up at the Kids Across America (KAA) campground,” Jeff remembered. “My kids were young at the time, but they were old enough to recognize that they were out of place with the KAA kids, who were from the inner-cities of places like Houston and Chicago. We helped load six dump truck loads of waste that day. Seeing the work of KAA and the hard stories of the kids there spoke to my heart. I wanted to show love to the kids at that camp that I would never be able to have a long-term connection with.”

Seeking to Do More

For several years, Jeff provided attendance scholarships for the Kids Across America Camp, a Christian sports camp committed to transforming urban America with the Gospel message shared with both campers and their adult leaders from across the country. “It is one thing to write a check, and it is another to bless people with something special,” Jeff shared. “I asked the KAA camp director, ‘What do you need? What can I do to help?’” Jeff’s farmer senses kicked in when he inquired how the camp was supplied with sweet corn for meals. 

Sharing His Farm’s Bounty

For the past seven years, Jeff has planted a field of sweet corn. While it provides meals for his family, the field’s first purpose is to bless the campers at KAA. By planting early and late varieties of sweet corn, Jeff delivers enough fresh corn on the cob and frozen corn to supply menus through most sessions each year. In the first year of the project, with the assistance of his church family, Jeff donated 80 gallons of processed sweet corn. In 2023, at the height of the recent drought, the project provided the most corn ever-188 gallons, and this year donated 143 gallons and fresh corn on the cob to the camp for the 4^th of July.   

“The community of Salisbury does not reflect the regular demographic of our supporters,” said Dave Janke, camp director for KAA who grew up farming in South Dakota. “Jeff’s corn project is a cool intersection where the farming community gets to impact inner city kids. The campers always say it is the ‘best corn’ they have ever eaten. Jeff’s generosity helps stretch our budget dollars. This project is the way the Gospel ought to be lived out: by taking care of people because it is the right thing to do.”

Setting an Example. Leading the Way.

While Jeff designed the vision of the sweet corn project, he has shared it with his friends and neighbors and their help is vital to getting all the corn picked and ready to deliver. Jeff doesn’t say much about his role in the success of the sweet corn project, but he readily highlights people from the communities surrounding Salisbury who come together each summer. A dozen members of his church family and local community pick sweet corn at dawn until a truck and wagon are heaped with ears. Rob and Catherine Rice and family welcome the community to their property to shuck, boil, and package the sweet corn. Twenty to thirty neighbors aged 8-90 help process the ears, including 88-year-old Virgil Cox and his wife Gleva, and other community members who handle sweet corn ears for hours until the job is done. Dan of Shepherd Farms opens his flash freezers so that the two-gallon bags of corn can be frozen quickly. This year JD and Diane King picked an extra load of sweet corn to share with the Macon County Food Bank. Jeff has personified servant leadership by championing the project and inviting others to show their love to others by joining in. 

The heart of Missouri agriculture can be found through Jeff’s sweet corn project and similar projects donating Missouri agriculture products to schools, senior centers and food banks. The Missouri Farmers Care Drive to Feed Kids is a collaboration which brings together organizations, leaders, farmers and ranchers to stand in the gap between Missouri’s agricultural abundance and the 1 in 7 Missouri children who face food insecurity. With the leadership of ADM, Brownfield Ag News, and agricultural organizations through Missouri Farmers Care, 12.7 million meals have been donated to Feeding Missouri food banks since 2017. 

Active Members of Community

The Gebhardt family has farmed together amongst the bluffs and bottoms of the Missouri River since his great-great-grandmother’s generation. Jeff’s mother owns the family corporation and Jeff focuses on growing grain crops. His brother sells seed, and his son operates an aerial spray drone business. Jeff and his wife, Robin, have invested in the Mid-Missouri Agri-System business as a support to the local agricultural economy. The couple participated in the American Soybean Association’s Dupont Young Leaders program in 1998-99. Robin is active in the community as an elementary school principal, a school which implements Missouri Farmers Care’s Agriculture Education on the Move™ curriculum program in partnership with Salisbury FFA. Salisbury FFA members share ten lessons to connect local third grade students with agriculture’s impact in their lives. Jeff is a church deacon and serves on the Forest Green Insurance Board and the Joe W. Ingram Trust Fund Committee. Jeff has served on the Salisbury school board, Thomas Hill Public Water Supply board, and MU Extension Council.