SFA's first executive director honored
By Carol Stender
cstender@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/18/2010 10:39 AM
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MORRIS, Minn. — Mary Jo Forbord and the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association faced some tough challenges six years ago: Membership had declined and few young families were interested in joining.
The once all-volunteer organization knew changes had to be made to survive. They hired Forbord as the group's first executive director and streamlined and refocused.
They honored Forbord for her work at last months state SFA convention with the association's Distinguished Service Award.
Forbord recalled the early years of her position.
"It wasn't just getting used to having an executive director for the association members," she said. "It was also the organization re-examining itself and its goals."
They started with the half-page mission statement. They rewrote it, condensing and making it "to the point," and developed a new statement.
"We are an organization that promotes sustainable farming systems through education, demonstration, innovation and farm-to-farm networks," Forbord said. "Then at a strategic planning meeting, we reorganized the board of directors from two representatives from each chapter — plus two alternates per chapter —to a nine member board. Before, we never really saw the same director twice at a meeting."
In 2006, at a strategic planning meeting at Prairie Horizons Farm, operated by Forbord and her husband, Luverne, the group discussed several goals including mentoring and encouraging the next generation of farmers. One director said if the group didn't focus on that, nothing else would really matter.
"Since that time, there has been a lot of effective activities directing its activities to the next generation," she said.
At SFA's convention last month at Gustavus Adolphus College, a film, "Farming Forward," debuted. The Forbords are among several sustainable farming families featured in the film.
"This is a film about what is right with food and farming systems and the direction the next generation will take in Minnesota," she said.
Although Forbord announced her resignation a year go and left the post last June, she remains committed to SFA's mission. The Forbords continue their association with SFA. Forbord has moved to a new position that reinforces SFA's emphasis on production and local foods. She is coordinator of the Morris Healthy Eating Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to expand the availability and access to fruits and vegetables and other healthy goods on campus within Morris and Stevens counties, Forbord said.
Her move to the Morris Healthy Eating Initiative was not her only reason for leaving the SFA post. The Forbord's 22-year-old son, Joraan, was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma Dec. 2008. The family helped Joraan throughout his battle against the cancer, which attacked the lining of his lung. He died Jan. 26.
Joraan graduated from Alexandria Vocational Technical College in its carpentry program and was working as a carpenter and a machinist when the cancer was diagnosed.
"There was an abrupt turning point where I wasn't the teacher of my son anymore," she said. "He became the teacher and my hero."
During his hospital stays, it was his dog, Chief, that helped revive his spirits.
"He asked one day if Chief could come," Forbord said. "The nurses said yes and we brought him to the hospital. Chief jumped right in bed with Joraan. That was the first time I'd seen him smile in a week."
Joraan knew the importance of Chiefs' presence throughout his treatments and hospital stays. He talked to nurses and his family about a project he wanted to establish. Pets for patients, he called it. It's a program his family plans to look into.