May June 2015
Where Christian faith gets down to business
A little red wagon with seeds of hope
Spenst Bros. Meats:
Turning the tables on mad-cow fears 1
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Pakistan — looking back at how we did Ghana seedlings reach for the sky The Marketplace May June 2015
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Roadside stand
Engineered for happiness Engineers have the happiest job in the world, closely followed by teachers and nurses, according to a study of nine different occupational surveys carried out by the Guardian. “Interestingly, we didn’t discover a link between a high salary and happiness, with occupations such as gardeners, personal assistants and construction workers also making it on to our list,” the newspaper said. What made engineers so happy? “Coming up with new designs that offer solutions to industry problems — and seeing my designs transferred into a commercial reality,” said a tooling engineer. “I get a lot of freedom to test my ideas, have access to state-of-the-art technology and I’m learning new skills on a daily basis.” A test engineer for an automotive firm specializing in quality and safety said: “I find it particularly satisfying to watch or read a five-star review of a vehicle that I have had a role in testing components for, and know I had a small part in its creation.”
guy he swore at was none other than the executive waiting to interview him. Leah Eichler tells this story in a column on workplace rudeness, noting that 96 percent of employees say they have felt rudeness at work. She cites research that rude behavior produces greater staff turnover, more sick days, lower morale and poor productivity. No word on whether the guy in London got the job. (Globe & Mail) Running a business and writing a book may be worlds apart, but they have something in common — caring
about the audience. The late management guru, Peter Drucker, urged businesses (and churches) to mind their customers. Now a successful novelist says the same thing about writing. In My 5 Top Tips for Aspiring Authors Jerry Jenkins (author of nearly 200 books, 21 of them New York Times bestsellers) says, “Bylines are gratifying. Royalty checks are fun. Making bestseller lists is a kick. But if you’re writing with any of those as your primary goal rather than as icing on the cake of benefitting your reader, you’re on the wrong path.” — WK
Freezing intentions. Workers at a poverty center in Haiti were going through cartons of donated children’s clothing from North America. They found — snowsuits. The average temperature in Haiti is in the low 80s Fahrenheit. (CLAC Guide) Just desserts? This reportedly really happened in London. A commuter in a hurry to get to a job interview rudely elbowed another public transit user out of the way and uttered an expletive that we can’t quote here. When he arrived at his appointment he was mortified to discover that the Cover photo of Gary Spenst by Wally Kroeker
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In this issue
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Turning the mad-cow tables
What do you do when the border is slammed shut on your prime export? These Manitoba entrepreneurs re-engineered themselves as specialty food producers, and business is booming.
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Net gains in Pakistan – 85,000 get a hand up. Page 11
Roadside stand Soul enterprise Soundbites News
Volume 45, Issue 3 May June 2015 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2015 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106.
At the age of seven he peddled garden seeds door-to-door with his little red wagon. Today he works on the world stage, improving seed systems to feed the hungry. By Lauren Good
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Pakistan six years later
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Sprouting upward
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Falling into God’s calling
Departments 2 4 20 22
Seeds of entrepreneurship
In 2009 MEDA set out to help thousands of micro-entrepreneurs improve their businesses and boost their income. Here’s an impact study showing how they did. By Scott Ruddick
A big new project aims to help 100,000 smallscale farmers in Ghana by developing a robust commercial market for high-performance cocoa, cashew, rubber and shea tree seedlings.
No matter where he went, the IT work always seemed to follow him. Eventually he got the message — that being a technologist was another great way to serve. By Lauren Jefferson
To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106
Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026. Web site www.meda.org
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But who will weigh the coal?
Time
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atio c o v n o o to g
Not everyone has a dream job. Millions of people feel unfulfilled and unhappy in their work. Could they be looking at work all wrong? A new documentary teaching series challenges Christians to look at work in a whole new way. Going On Vocation aims to help Christians connect their faith identity to any vocation and find their calling. Faith should not be turned off when people go to work, says Dr. Greg Foster, program director at the Kern Family Foundation. Faith should permeate attitudes and actions in every aspect of life. “We can find joy in helping people in a God-honoring way,” adds Dr. Chris Armstrong, theology professor at Wheaton (Ill.) College. Going On Vocation uses personal stories of ordinary people at work to show that vocation or calling is about much more than a paid job. Noted scholars are joined by a waitress, a policeman, a stay-at-home father and many others to explore how God calls Christians to a life of vocation. It aims to help viewers see their work, not as drudgery or obligation, but as an opportunity to live out their faith and see daily work as a way to serve others and create blessings. The two-part, eight-lesson documentary is produced by the Christian History Institute and Vision Video. To order ($19.99 U.S.) go to http://www.GoingOnVocation.com
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I enjoy telling the story about two brothers who were in the coal business. Revival meetings came to town. One of the brothers accepted Christ. For weeks he tried to persuade his brother to become a Christian, too. One day the unconverted brother responded, “It’s fine for you to be a Christian, but if I became a Christian, who would weigh the coal?” Who would weigh the coal! The implication is quite clear. Becoming a follower of Jesus affects how we weigh coal. When Zacchaeus met the Lord he started to “weigh coal” differently. Luke 19:8 (NIV) records his new business ethics: “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” If the world’s methods for “weighing coal” are off the mark, where do we turn for direction? To the inner nudgings of God’s Spirit. To the Scriptures as we study them. To our congregational gatherings as we listen to the admonitions of our brothers and sisters. “Weighing coal” in today’s business world is a complicated enterprise. Pursuing Christian faithfulness is a lifelong journey which requires continuous openness to the leading of God’s Spirit plus lots of courage to apply his teachings in our daily business decisions and practices. — John H. Rudy, reprinted from his Auditor’s Report column in The Marketplace, December 1985
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Woman with a mop
Who else works our field? We’d like to think this magazine, and the organization behind it, meets all your faith/work needs. We’d like to think that by the time you finish reading this magazine you are filled with new energy and purpose and can hardly wait to get to your job to demonstrate how God works through business to meet human needs and create business solutions to poverty. But maybe you have an insatiable hunger for more and just can’t wait two months for the next issue or for new resources on our website (www.meda.org) For those we offer this list of organizations who also cultivate the field of business as a Christian calling. • businessasmissionnetwork. com • c12group.com • convenenow.com • faithandworklife.org • thehighcalling.org • marketplaceleaders.org • theologyofwork.org • worklife.org
Last fall I went to hospital for surgery (it was successful). I learned a lot about hospital life. As other patients know, healing can entail a procession of technicians who drop in at any hour, blare on the lights, prod & poke, take vitals, and show off your incremental progress to an entourage of trainees. Between their visits I had plenty of time to think about the MEDA job from which I was absent. Now, the recovery ward wasn’t much like a factory floor or a soybean field in Ghana, but it had people showing up for work, carrying out their prescribed tasks, expressing their individual competencies and along the way maybe even finding some metaphysical meaning in what they were doing. I came out with a fortified sense that MEDA has been right all along — our daily toil (whether in a corporation or a hospital) is a measure of who we are and what we can contribute to the world around us. All the staff seemed to have a higher purpose — the surgeon who came daily to check his stitchery, the nurses who monitored my vitals and injected medication, the specialists who gouged holes in my flesh and wormed a tube up into my heart, the room cleaner who mopped my floors. Ah yes, the woman with the mop. She diligently swabbed tiles and wiped walls as if she were the lone buffer of defence between purity and infection. (Every year some 75,000 North Americans die from infections picked up in hospitals; that’s many times the number of Ebola deaths last year.) She may have been on the low end of the pay scale, but that didn’t seem to dampen her purpose. She scrubbed and cleaned as if my life depended on her. And maybe it did. She was a good reminder to me that our daily work, no matter how small our individual roles, can be a calling, an occasion to practice our values, to demonstrate our faith, and to be part of God’s larger ordering of things. — Wally Kroeker
Overheard:
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“Nobody gets into heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.” — Rev. James Forbes The Marketplace May June 2015
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Turning the tables on mad-cow fears When the border slammed shut on their prime export, the Spenst family re-engineered themselves. And business is booming.
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ary Spenst takes a visitor past a stand of silos and points south, beyond the feedlot on his family’s farm in Reinland, Manitoba. “It’s less than a mile to the U.S.,” he says. Here the Canada/U.S. border has no fences or barricades, but for a cattle producer it might as well have had a Berlin Wall. Gary knows what it’s like to have his future redefined by the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen.
(BSE), as it is technically known, nor did it want to start now. Every Canadian cattle producer was hit with the same hammer as the U.S. and other major markets slammed shut their doors to Canadian beef. The entire Canadian industry was devastated.
know what to expect. Would the border closure be short-lived? Would it all get sorted out? As it turned out, the border was closed to beef for years. “When mad cow came, our heifers were instantly worth nothing,”
A dozen years ago he and his
family made their living producing Angus-cross-bred cattle for the U.S. beef market. They were proud of their operation. “I love the farm,” says Gary. “That’s where my heart is.” They raised several hundred head of cattle a year, mostly for export to the U.S. They were in it for the long haul. Gary and his wife Connie encouraged both of their sons, Paul (wife, Felisha) and Garreth (wife, Maryanne), to get an education. Both boys went to University of Manitoba, one taking the agricultural diploma course and the other getting a bachelor’s degree in math. Both became skilled breeders, certified in artificial insemination. Then, in 2003, came “mad cow disease.” It didn’t come to them but to Alberta, two provinces to the west. The U.S. had not before had bovine spongiform encephalopathy The Marketplace May June 2015
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Many of Connie Spenst’s home-grown recipes find their way onto the shelves, like eight-grain bread and sweet pepper relish.
To make things worse, the Spenst family had just bought a hundred bred heifers, who now had no market. In fact, they had shipped a load the very day the hammer dropped. Farmers didn’t know what it all meant. Manitoba had never had BSE (and still hasn’t) so producers didn’t
Gary says. “At that time a cow was worth $7, but it cost $10 to ship it.”
What do you do when the rug has just been pulled out from under you? “We prayed about it a lot,” Gary says simply.
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Any summer Saturday you’ll find Gary and Connie Spenst at Winnipeg’s St. Norbert Market, dishing out Farm Burgers and other products.
At first they couldn’t believe the border embargo would last; surely it was temporary. But as it dragged on and the unshipped heifers kept growing they realized they had to do something. Their first idea was to set up a cut-and-wrap processing plant on their farm. This idea then morphed into starting a specialty meat shop in Winkler, a small city 10 minutes north of their farm. Local administrative officials agreed that this was something their growing city needed. Working with civic rules and permits is not always a smooth path. As with any new enterprise, there were setbacks. “We always took the obstacles as God’s leading,” says Gary. “The way things took off we were sure God was blessing us.” In October 2003 the family opened Spenst Brothers Premium Meats in Winkler with the goal of producing food “the way mom would
have made it at home.” For the Spenst family that means home-grown beef that is raised without the use of growth promotants. “The store was built with the idea that people would come to appreciate knowing where their food comes from,” says the company website. In addition to fresh cuts of beef, the store offers a fullservice deli with all meats made in-house every week. In keeping with the “home made” motif they do not add fillers, MSG, animal by-products or artificial color to any of their products. Almost everything in the store is selfproduced, from meat cuts and sausages Son Paul, general manager, runs the farm, raising 700 in the deli case to head of cattle and cultivating 2,000 acres of crops like condiments, baked corn, canola and barley. 7
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goods, potpies, perogies and various kinds of relish based on recipes from Grandma Zacharias, Connie’s mother. Many of Connie’s other homegrown recipes also find their way onto the shelves, like her legendary hamburger and hot dog buns. “Everybody always talked about them and asked for them,” says Gary proudly. On Friday and Saturday the first buns go into the oven at 3 a.m. “We’re pushing a product that is superior without preservatives,” he says. There’s also a signature loaf of eight-grain bread as well as sticky bread and lemon and chocolate freezer rolls. “Everything we sell is our own,” says Connie, whose title is product developer. On her computer screen is a list of ingredients for pulled pork, another recent offering. “We want to have a continual line of new products.” Pizza has become a great success for them. You might think the market for that product is well saturated, but apparently not so. It’s the number one fast food in North America, and two-thirds of it is made by independents. The suggestion to get into it came from a food industry supplier in Winnipeg who said, “You have to do pizza.” The Spenst family now makes nearly 20 different kinds of pizza,
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including a breakfast variety. “It’s our second-biggest item,”says Gary. “Fifty stores carry it across southern Manitoba, from Killarney to Steinbach.” Schools have latched onto it as a fundraiser. “We sell them to the kids wholesale, and they can charge whatever they want for their fundraisers. One Grade 6 class in Steinbach just sold more than 1,000.” The Spensts have not yet bothered to break into the Winnipeg market (population 750,000; 75 miles northeast) because right now they can’t supply that much pizza. That will change when their new commercial kitchen (17,600 square feet) is completed this year. Two of the seven exterior doors are specially designed for Sprinter pizza delivery vans.
The Spenst enterprise is a
well-integrated family operation. Son Paul is general manager and runs the farm, which not only raises 700 head of cattle for the food operation but also comprises 2,000 acres of cultivated land on which they grow corn, canola, barley, dry edible beans and hay for their own feed and for sale. Production manager Garreth
more crumbly than he liked. One day it came to him, Why not add cranberries? The extra moisture improved the texture of the beef, and the flavor spoke for itself. Some brainstorms start with a customer comment or request, but not every one can be satisfied. “The products have to be sustainable,” says Garreth.
“In all my years I’ve never gone to work yet. I thoroughly enjoy every part of what we do.” He is also careful about fat content. Some people prefer more fat in their sausage, he says. “We’re a very lean deli.” What is he most proud of? A quick contender is shish kabob; another is their smoked turkey sausage.
From June to October Gary
and Connie spend Saturdays at the St. Norbert Market on the southern edge of Winnipeg. They are there well before the sun rises with a food trailer and a freezer unit. All day long they’ll sell meat products and burgers. They are known for their Farmburger, a bun with a farmer sausage patty, a beef patty, cheese, bacon, Connie’s own pepper relish and a special sauce. Besides being a profit center in its own right, the market stall engages new customers. “People Son Garreth devises new products, ranging from buy all winter because cranberry roast beef and other sausages, to his pride they saw us at St. Norand joy, shish kabob. bert,” says Gary. Gary and Connie also cater spedevises new products like cranberry roast beef and jalapeno ham sausage. cial events like company banquets and picnics. The cranberry roast beef came into “I love to cook,” Gary says simbeing because the regular beef was The Marketplace May June 2015
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ply. In fact, he adds, he basically just loves his work. “In all my years I’ve never gone to work yet. I thoroughly enjoy every part of what we do.”
Church and mission rank high with the Spenst family. Gary and Connie are longtime members of the Bethel Bergthaler Mennonite Church, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. For 30 of those years Gary has sung first tenor with the Bethel quartet. This spring he and Connie went to Mexico for a week, as they’ve done previously, to help out with a Christian ministry that among other things offers Bible studies and educational aid to children. Not surprisingly, there was a food opportunity for Gary — a barbecue and fiesta for local people, with kids’ facepainting and distribution of used clothing. Gary looked after cooking 2,700 hot dogs. “I like to feed people,” he says. “What’s better than to feed hungry children?” Gary relies heavily on what he understands as God’s leading. This doesn’t mean every business decision is necessarily going to succeed, but there’s a sense in which reliance on God underpins daily actions. He remembers wrestling with a business decision one day as he was making deliveries in a Frenchspeaking area of eastern Manitoba. He asked God for wisdom. In one Francophone town all the signs and billboards were in French. Except one. “There was a billboard, in English, from Proverbs 3:6 — ‘In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.’ “That was a sign for me,” says Gary. “I always acknowledge where I see God’s hands.” For Gary, running a family enterprise is like steering a ship. “When I steer that ship I need to steer it correctly. I can’t steer the ship unless I have direction from God.” ◆
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Seeds of entrepreneurship A departing staff member looks back with gratitude on an unpredictable journey For the past three years Lauren Good, who works in MEDA’s Washington, DC office, has been leading a project to develop a commercial distribution system for disease-resistant varieties of cassava for African farmers. In a recent staff meeting, he reflected on his personal journey with gardening, seeds and entrepreneurship, and his decision to apply his skills in a larger arena. by Lauren Good
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hen I was a young boy, my brothers and I subscribed to magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. I enjoyed reading the ads at the back that advertised all kinds of business opportunities. When I was seven years old, I noticed an ad by a seed company that invited youth to sell garden seeds in their neighborhoods. This seemed perfect. We lived in a suburban area outside of Washington DC. Both of my parents were raised on farms, and we had a big family. Six kids can eat a lot, so we had a very large garden that not only fed us through the summer, but also through the winter, with frozen and canned vegetables and fruits. I couldn’t understand why so few of our neighbors had gardens. I saw a
business opportunity. The story goes that most entrepreneurs are not successful on their first venture, and I had already been rocked by one business failure. Two years prior, at age five, I signed up to sell heirloom inscribed family Bibles. I went all around the neighborhood trying to sell them, and although a nice neighbor lady invited me in for my pitch, what I remember most was that despite my inability to close the sale, I was fed some cookies. 9
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Nonetheless, I forged on. I bought my seed kit, and set out with my wagon to change my neighborhood through better seeds. Of course, a benefit of buying from me was that I embedded extension services to customers, because we grew most of the crops that I was selling. I don’t have sales figures from that year, so I cannot tell you any of my profitability metrics, and I don’t recall running a Net Present Value (NPV) calculation prior to making my initial investment. What I do recall is that I sold some seeds; however, I also took note when some prospective customers objected that they didn’t have time to raise plants from seeds. So, like any good entrepreneur, I went home and adjusted my business plan. It was too late this year, but the next year I was ready. I started all of the popular plants in our basement under grow lamps. Then at the right time, when people were getting that spring fever to get outside, I headed back out with my little red wagon, making sure to hit all of the houses where I had received the “can’t plant from seed” objection, and told them that I listened to them last year and now had the plants. “Hi Mrs. Johnson. Remember last year when you told me you never had luck growing from seeds? I brought you plants The Marketplace May June 2015
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this year.” How could they refuse now? I also decorated my wagon with a few dried gourds that I had grown the previous season, just to create the proper point-ofpurchase merchandising look. Again, I don’t have the sales or profitability data. I believe IRS only requires us to keep seven years of business records. But I do recall feeling great. I was making money while doing something that was healthy and good for my customer neighbors.
es pretty much all of what I believe about doing development well. And I have been blessed to work with so many great people. When I came to MEDA, I assumed I would finish out my career here. Unexpectedly, however, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offered me an opportunity to join a team working to improve seed systems for crops critical for food security in Africa. In a way, I’m returning to a vision Lauren Good (left) and fellow MEDA staffer David of a seven-year-old with a red Eagle nibble raw cassava in Mtwara, Tanzania. wagon. Seeds provide hope, to start a new business. I thought and combining them with sound busiThis started a string of other the start-up experience, along with ness models seems to be my calling. small business ideas. My brothers and further education, would provide me But I’m not really ready to leave skills to help others help themselves I started making dog houses, which MEDA entirely. I’ll continue as a through business opportunities. my dad would display and sell in his member and expect to attend conI didn’t know MEDA then, but building supply store. I sold subscripventions when I am able. And I hope over time, I did, attending a few tions to a local newspaper. I mowed to strengthen the ties between the MEDA conventions. After one in grass, shoveled snow, raked leaves Gates Foundation and MEDA, not Colorado, I came home and told my around the neighborhood, and was only within our agricultural develophired to do the weekly cleaning at my wife that when I sold the business, ment team, but in other ways as I church. By the time I was 14, my dad I wanted to join up with MEDA to am able to make connections and use what business skills I had gained increase the visibility of MEDA there. figured out that it was better just to over the years to return to my origihire me to work in the family businal idea of using business as a way ness, and so for the next six years, I I look back on my career with of creating social good. suppressed my entrepreneurial itch. gratitude. What started as my two-year These memories flowed back I’m grateful for parents, who business experiment dragged on last November, when I met with and were businesspeople with a confor 25 years until I finally decided interviewed 11 of our Youth Agriscience. This was expressed in to make the change. At that time, cultural Sales Agents in Ethiopia. treatment of employees, respect and my wife and I committed that once The changes visible in each of these appreciation for customers, and by we sold our business, our next jobs youth — selling seeds and other building relationships with other would be about passion. So after sell- companies they might merely have supplies in their local villages, but ing, and going back to school to com- considered competitors. dreaming far beyond — were really plete an MBA, I landed at MEDA, to inspiring. I sat with one who told I’m grateful for my time as a me his 10-year plan to finish his high the amusement and surprise of many business owner, where I learned that school, get to a university — the first friends who had heard the story but success comes when responding to didn’t believe that I would do it. in his family — go to medical school customers’ needs, and through them to become a doctor, finally returning finding new market opportunities. Now, much later, I have deto his home community to start a I’m grateful for a very supportive cided to leave MEDA. Why would I health clinic. I firmly believe that he family — a wife and son who have supleave my dream job? MEDA embracwill go on to do impressive things. ported me through various life changes and a decision to leave a successful By the time I was in college, I business and follow new passions. “I wanted to use the was questioning disparities in our And grateful to MEDA for giving economic system, but at the same me this chance to understand the skills I had gained to time I already understood the allure development field in a compassionand possibility of entrepreneurship as ate way that also resonates with my a means of empowerment, and poten- use business as a way predilection for doing things that are tially something for social good. After grounded in good common and busiof creating social good.” ness sense. ◆ two years of college, I took a break The Marketplace May June 2015
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Dispatch from a war zone Civil disruption has not deterred MEDA from working in global hotspots. The following edited report from a strife-torn region suggests what it’s like to work amid constant danger. For reasons of security the MEDA staffer and her location are not identified.
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he country where I lead a women’s empowerment program for MEDA is considered one of the most dangerous on earth. Local strife has caused us to move our office four times in two years. Just getting to the airport to attend a MEDA meeting in Canada was a challenge because a 12-metre hole from an airstrike the previous week had damaged the runway of our airport. I have seen more change and disruption in two years than most people have seen in 20. Our unusual circumstances produce a high turnover, but members of my staff pledged to stay long enough to make things happen, some for a year or at least enough time to reach a specific target in the project before leaving. I cannot ask more. This is a hard place right now, but as long as the project components are delivered successfully and the clients are happy, then all is fine. Currently there are increased challenges — power cuts, telecom failure, travel difficulties, and threats from religious dogma. But we still
Our staff did not give up. They worked from home, in cafes, in lineups for fuel and in our bombed office after a stray missile. operate and carry out monthly networking events facilitated by MEDA staff on our premises. We are running a nationwide gender and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) survey and the women are the ones asking for this. The results will help us work on suitable business development services for them. This is our strong point; this is how we help and are there for our clients. The spirit of collaboration and common mission is vital. When hostilities heightened and it seemed the international community was abandoning our country — along with many local citizens who could afford to leave — MEDA staff did not give up! We worked from home, in cafes, in our car waiting in the queue to refuel (some fuel lines were five days long!), over the phone, online when we had power and in our bombed office after a stray missile. Why? 15
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Because we are passionate about our country’s women and how what we are doing is the building block of a sound society. When women are empowered they improve the lives of people around them. In the two years of the project so far, we have trained 200 women from various cities. We also mentored and supported hundreds of women in person at our face-to-face business plan support clinics and an equal number online. Throughout this we created a nucleus of networks for them and a place to feel safe and supported in their business entrepreneurship quest. Their feedback speaks to why MEDA is trusted and credible in this country. Despite the strife and danger, we never left, we kept our word, we followed up and we delivered to make it happen against all odds (not always following plans to the letter but being creative along the way). This would not have been possible without us being there for each other and for the client, whether in head office, senior management or in the field. Our future is increasingly uncertain. Will the status quo remain? Or will we see a diplomatic resolution and restored normality, along with more opportunities conducive to women’s empowerment? I cannot predict the future but I know I can always count on a spirit of unity and our motivation to serve the client! ◆ The Marketplace May June 2015
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Sprouting upward New Ghana project will raise the bar for cocoa, cashew, rubber and shea seedlings
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n one of its most ambitious projects, MEDA is setting out to help 100,000 small-scale farmers in Ghana increase their income by establishing a robust commercial market for cocoa, cashew, rubber and shea tree seedlings. MEDA recently received approval for a six-year, $23 million project to give tree farmers access to high-performance tree seedlings (HPTS) and a strengthened supply chain promoting the export markets. “Agriculture comprises about a third of Ghana’s economy, and a third of that is tree crops,” says David Eagle, MEDA agriculture specialist who will lead the project. He adds that chronic shortages of highquality tree seedlings have severely constrained the country’s ability to capture added economic value. MEDA is already heavily involved with soybean production in Ghana. This new income-generating project aims to pump life into an export industry by producing and promoting high-yield seedlings for plantations that have lost vigor over time. MEDA’s private sector partner in the project is Tree Global, a SwissCanadian nursery firm specializing in high-performance seedlings. Tree Global will build two nurseries in Ghana, each of which can produce two million seedlings a year. MEDA will handle promotion and distribution. “We will work on the value chain side of it, setting up distribution mechanisms,” says Eagle. MEDA will rely on its extensive voucher expertise (used, for example, in the distribution of mosquito nets The Marketplace May June 2015
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A third of Ghana’s agricultural economy is tree crops, like this cocoa seedling. 16
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Two new nurseries, like these, will produce four million healthy seedlings a year for African tree producers.
in Tanzania) to promote adoption. As a temporary stimulus to the end user, farmers who register in the system will be given electronic discount vouchers on their cellphones which they can apply toward the purchase of seedlings.
The project will operate in the Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti regions of western and central Ghana. By the end, it is anticipated that a network of world-class commercial nurseries will have been established in these key tree-crop growing locations. It is 17
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targeted that 100,000 farmers will have benefitted, not only from increased income but also from additional expertise and better access to finance. It is also expected that 50 small enterprises in the value chain and 25 farmer associations will be strengthened. Eagle says the bulk of the country’s tree crop production is exported to large buyers of cocoa, cashews, rubber and shea (used in cosmetics). Half of the project’s $22.8 million will come from the Canadian government and $7 million will come from Tree Global. MEDA will contribute $2.1 million, which includes a substantial prospective investment in Tree Global. While the financing has been approved, the project is still ramping up and is expected to be in operation this fall. ◆ The Marketplace May June 2015
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Falling backwards into God’s calling When he stopped “running from computers” he felt freed up to serve — as a technologist
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an Shenk-Evans characterizes his career in technology as “falling backwards” into God’s calling. For years, every position he sought in direct social ministry eventually led him reluctantly to a computer, where he would quickly solve IT problems and streamline organizational workflow. “I wasn’t sure I would find meaningful work in computer science. I thought I should be in direct service, and I tried to find a way to do that kind of work, but it wasn’t what I was best at,” said Shenk-Evans. Now director of information technologies at the Capital Area Food Bank, Shenk-Evans oversees the technological systems within a new 123,000-square-foot warehouse and office that provide food to more than 500 partner agencies, which in turn feed 478,000 people in the Washington D.C. metro area. His goal is to develop technology as a strategic asset so that more hungry adults and children can be reached. And while he may not be meeting those hungry people face-toface every day, Shenk-Evans says his work is enriching and fulfilling. “At some point, I’ve decided to be at peace with the idea that I’m a technologist,” he said. “That is how I serve. It took me 15 years to be able to say that: I am good at this. I’m not a spokesman or a fundraiser. I’m a mission-focused technologist and this is my contribution to society.” The Marketplace May June 2015
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Photo by Jon Styer
by Lauren Jefferson
Dan Shenk-Evans: Developing technology as a strategic asset so more hungry people can be fed. 18
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Now Shenk-Evans can tell his story of “running away from computers” with a sense of humor. In his first year of Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS), he turned down a computer teaching position in Jamaica in favor of an agency liaison position at the Capital Area Food Bank. “Almost immediately, someone was programming a custom inventory management system and he needed help,” Shenk-Evans said. “Within a few weeks, I was the database administrator.” At the end of his first MVS year, he requested a different part-time position and was placed in a job referral program at the Spanish Catholic Center. “Again, I was trying to get away from computers, but I have a tendency to want to make things as efficient as possible, so I developed a database so they could track applicants, jobs, and employers.”
In the ensuing years, ShenkEvans earned a Master’s of Divinity at Duke, which included taking a restorative justice course at Eastern Mennonite University, and took a two-year stint as executive director of a Habitat for Humanity affiliate. There, his true aptitudes emerged. “No matter what I did at this small non-profit, the IT work always fell on me,” he said. “I spent two years automating our office to make our organization more efficient. I set up the first email system, [and] the first network, and implemented a database to track our mortgages.” Finally, a friend pointed out that his strengths — administrative and IT experience with non-profits — would be useful at his company, Community IT Innovators. From 2000 to 2010, Shenk-Evans was a senior consultant with CITI. Then he returned to the Capital Area Food Bank as its first full-time IT director.
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Shenk-Evans now supervises a staff of three: a GIS specialist, an information systems manager, and a network administrator. Asked what advice he would give others following in his footsteps, Shenk-Evans said: “For a long time, I had a narrow definition of what meaningful work was. I thought direct service was the most important way to help. Then when I tried to do it, I found out that I wasn’t very good at it. I had other skills. If you’re trying to do something that is outside your true skill set, you won’t be as effective at your work. Keep your mind and heart open to different ways to serve. Keep in mind that you’ll only be happy if you use your gifts to the good. Try to find the intersections between what the world needs, your gifts and God’s calling.” ◆ Reprinted with permission from Crossroads, alumni publication of Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia.
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Soundbites
Is your competitor an ally? Most companies do not think of their competitors as stakeholders; they view them as enemies to be crushed in the marketplace. Companies commonly use war metaphors in thinking about competitors. But a more constructive way to think about competitors is as allies in striving for mutual excellence. Good competitors help a business to improve and evolve because they offer its stakeholders choices. They can coax a company out of its complacency and away from suboptimal behaviors. Competitors create and innovate, coming up with ideas, strategies, products, and services that we may not have thought of on our own. — John Mackey and Raj Sisodia in
relationship with Jesus Christ. — Diane Paddison in The High Calling blog
Saving early Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Showing up “How do I bring my faith to work?“ you ask. If you are showing up to work, then your faith is too. It really is that simple. It’s not a question of how to bring faith to work because your faith is part of you. How your faith plays out in the workplace is much less about your strategy for showing it to people and much more about the health of your personal
I learned early to save my money in dividend earning investments. My Pop would say, “I’ll buy you 100 shares of PP&L and you can pay me back as you earn it!” I never had any money to spend because I was always paying back my Pop for all the stock he bought me! A friend in my adult years called that “contrived poverty.” — Henry Rosenberger speaking to Eastern Mennonite University’s annual donor appreciation banquet
Retire to what? Without a purpose, retirement is a void. What that purpose is or should be is an individual choice. It can be a love of golf, a desire to travel, to do volunteer work in a developing country, to study, to be an artist or pursue a hobby, or to devote your life to a religious order or to take a more secular path of helping others. The point is that there should be a goal or a plan of possible activity or action. Just quitting because it seems possible is not only foolish, it is precarious. — Andrew Allentuck in When Can I Retire?
Creative “Wow” There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say “Wow,” and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas. — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in a biography by Walter Isaacson The Marketplace May June 2015
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Keep the change
don’t sing the glories of change. For example, peasant farmers in developing countries who are frozen out of their traditional markets by the swollen subsidies rich nations give their own producers probably have a good case for not liking change. Globalization is fine for the rich, less so for the poor. A preacher rebuked his congregation for resisting change. (Meaning: accept my changes.) I don’t think he meant we should change churches. Or religions. Corporate cheerleaders like to trumpet change as a corporate virtue. I’d love to hear a CEO suggest this change: “Shrink my salary to five times the average of my employees, rather than 200 times.” I guess the attraction of change has its limits.
Last week they buried Aunt Sue. She yearned to die. Now, finally, she had. This was a change she wanted. People say I don’t like change. Well, maybe I don’t. Too many of the changes I’ve seen recently have been for the worse, not the better. I’ve been demoted, lost a parent, and stood by in tears as close friends terminated their marriages. I’m supposed to embrace change? Business discourse is full of change talk. One Internet keystroke brings you in touch with scads of books to help you welcome, design or lead change. Only a shlep admits to resisting change. The people who cheer loudest about change are those who have managed to turn a buck from it. Losers
— Nina Palumbo
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The Marketplace May June 2015
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News
Even monks need to pay the freight Monks may be committed to prayer cantly limits the workday.” and good works but their monasterAccordingly, St. Joseph’s has ies don’t pay for themselves. Since capped output at 10,000 barrels a someone has to pay the bills, more and more monasteries are getting into artisanal businesses. “Keeping a religious community fed, clothed and operational is costly, and it’s common to find American Sarah French and Mary Fehr aren’t monks running enterprises in a your typical 20-somethings — nor variety of industries,” writes Jacob is their upcoming adventure. Both Davidson in Money magazine. As an recently served as MEDA interns: example he cites the Trappists at St. Sarah on an agriculture project in Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., Nicaragua, Mary on a health project who operate a 36,000 square-foot in Tanzania. brewery. After seeing the impact of helpDavidson says there is an eleing women get out of poverty and ment of hipness to the monks’ oflive healthier ferings, like gourmet coffee lives, they wanted made by Carmelite monks to get more in Wyoming and a South involved. In May Carolina Abbey that sells the pair will trendy dried mushrooms to embark on a fourfancy restaurants. Monks in month bike ride Louisiana make coffins and across Canada to Benedictines in Missouri sell raise $150,000 for greeting cards. Intrepid interns: Cyclists MEDA’s GROW He notes that monks Sarah French (left) and project in Ghana have to operate within cerMary Fehr. (Greater Rural Optain theological constraints, such as being careful not to make too portunities for Women). “The GROW project is assisting much money. One governing body 20,000 women farmers and their insists output be produced by the families to sustainably emerge from monks themselves and income must poverty,” says French. “Mary and be proportionate to the needs of the I wanted to support a project that monastery and its charities. focused on women because we saw “That means if Spencer Trappist the gender inequalities while on our Ale started flying off the shelves,” says Davidson, “St. Joseph’s couldn’t own internships. It couldn’t be more manufacture more beer unless it first symbolic: Two women cycling across Canada representing independent, recruited a bunch of new monks to self-sufficient women.” work at the brewery — monks are Bike to GROW began in mid-May the only people allowed to oversee in Victoria, B.C. and will conclude in operations — and vastly expanded early September in Leamington, Ont. its charitable activities in proportion On the way, the bikers will stop at to the increase in revenue. Even if MEDA chapters, churches and comnone of those restrictions existed, munity centres to talk about MEDA, production would still be limited by the monastic schedule, which signifi- the GROW project and their experience.
year. It makes up for some slack with premium prices, selling a four-pack for up to $16.99. ◆
Former MEDA interns cycling for a cause
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Comments?
“I love to take on a challenge and prove to myself that absolutely anything is possible with willpower and determination,” Fehr says, adding that they are biking on behalf of MEDA, its supporters and the women and families in Ghana. GROW is helping women soybean farmers in northern Ghana increase agricultural production, strengthen links to markets, diversify the food they produce and understand more about nutrition. Funded by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), the six-year project aims to improve the incomes and food security of 20,000 women and their families. “We’re so blessed and honored that women like Sarah and Mary want to support our efforts to empower women as entrepreneurs here in Ghana,” says Catherine Sobrevega, GROW country project manager. “These women work hard and persevere every day to provide for their families. You can see their smiles when they learn new things, produce a good harvest and have income because of our support. It’s exciting to know their life-changing stories are going to be shared across Canada.” To follow the bikers’ experiences visit www.biketogrow.com. ◆ Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org
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Mushroom treatment boosts church economy What could fungi possibly have to do with the future of the Colombia Mennonite Church? Plenty, says Hippolyto Tshimanga, who leads African and Latin American ministries for Mennonite Church Canada. He is on a quest to bring economic sustainability to churches in Africa and Latin America. One of his preferred ways to do that is through small enterprise, such as growing mushrooms. Last November Tshimanga attended a workshop on how to use readily available organic materials to grow a variety of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. He learned how to plant mushroom spores in alternate bedding materials, like used coffee grounds. Straw, often
used for this purpose, isn’t always available to city churches. Now, congregations are growing mushrooms to sell. Tshimanga has a long-held interest in finding alternative approaches to sustainable food production, such as aquaponics, rabbit breeding and other forms of agri-business. He says the idea of nurturing economic support for the church finally began to take root abroad when two young African men from Congo and Burkina Faso became intrigued with the idea of sustainable development for the church. Entrepreneurship seminars for youth and women that were held in 2010 and 2011 led to the creation of several small businesses, such as raising rabbits in Congo and
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cultivating sweet potatoes in Burkina. Last year Tshimanga addressed the Colombia church’s general assembly on the theme of self-reliance and economic initiatives. Shortly thereafter the church created a fish pond 15 metres in diameter to provide fish for their annual retreat camp and for sale to the general public. In order for churches to become self-sufficient and eventually grow, Tshimanga says, they must first tend to the well-being of their members and help them find ways to earn an income that can also sustain the church. “The church can only support itself when her people are economically stable,” he says. (Mennonite Church Canada news service)
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The Marketplace May June 2015
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