Funds from the Farm

Funds from the Farm

Charles Romans

The Ashland Beacon

The annual Farm 2 Table Dinner held in 2025 in Greenup, Kentucky, generated massive support from the community and beyond. Local and regional businesses, along with individual community members, donated time, resources, and money to ensure that the event in Greenup County continued to be the largest event of its kind in the entire state.

Funds raised during the event were set to be donated to the Greenup County 4H, Greenup County FFA, and the Historic McConnell House in Wurtland, Kentucky, and on Monday, January 12, 2026, representatives of those organizations were presented with checks representing the donations. Each group received $15,000 from Farm 2 Table to help with their individual needs and projects.

Greenup County Judge Executive Bobby Hall spoke to those assembled at the presentation and pointed out that the donations each of the three groups received were from a single event. “That’s $45,000 that was raised for you to have a great year!” Hall told the group, mostly composed of Greenup County students.

“We appreciated everything you do,” Hall told the students. “And we appreciate you all understanding what work means. You raise animals, you do things on the farm, and you do chores,” Hall commended the students. “You are a special group of people, and that’s why we are here. We are on your side. When you need something, ask,” Hall said. “And we will be here to support you.”

Representatives from 4H and FFA said the donations would be a major help for all the things those organizations do during the course of the year and beyond. Most of the students shared a similar reason for joining those organizations, typically because they had family members and friends who had been involved in those programs.

“I had always grown up around small animals like goats and pigs,” Ella Stone said. “I understood the more commercial side of it, but not the livestock industry, like the showing portion of it,” she said. “And that, specifically, was something I wanted to get into.” Now, Stone has been showing for over eight years and said she has learned so much about that aspect of it. “I have learned so much from the livestock showing industry, and I can take that knowledge back to my herd.”

Colon Ream said he joined FFA and 4H because his family has always been involved in agriculture. The involvement of his family members was both an inspiration to him and fuel for his curiosity about what could be done in the field of agriculture.

Josie Mullins, who is also the Farm 2 Table Chair, said that her experience began growing up working on her uncle’s farm. “My parents put me in 4H, and that’s something that just stuck with me,” she said. “I have been showing from elementary school until now,” Mullins said.

Greenup County has a rich history of agriculture and generational farm families who take it very seriously. Programs such as 4H and FFA help young people get a head start on learning not only the business of agriculture, but also business in general. The work is hard, as Judge Executive Hall pointed out, but it comes with its own unique rewards that those involved will be quick to list.

“We have to support the young people coming up,” Kenny Imel from Imel’s Greenhouse said. Imel’s Greenhouse hosts and supports the event each year, but he is quick to say the majority of the hands-on work and even organization is done by the young people in the groups the event benefits. “They work hard all year round,” Imel said. “And we are glad to be able to give back to them and recognize them for everything they do.”