wfn.org | Pumpkins make dreams come true

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 6, 2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
  ALL-NA-P{479}

NOTE: Photographs, a UMTV segment and sidebars - UMNS stories #480-481 - are
available.

A UMNS Feature
By Kathy L. Gilbert*

FARMINGTON, N.M. (UMNS) - Once upon a time, there was a young man who didn't
know what to do.

His father said, "Son, you have always liked to grow things, why don't you be
a farmer?"

So he planted some corn and peas and threw out a few pumpkin seeds. 

It was the pumpkins that people loved. Folks came from near and far to buy
the big orange vegetables. The young man thought to himself, "What I need is
a thousand pumpkin patches just like this all across the U.S." 

And that is how Richard Hamby became "the pumpkin man."

Hamby's life does sound a lot like a fairy tale. With his sweet smile and
gentle manner, he is a man who seems surprised that, 30 years later, he is
still making a living raising pumpkins.

"It's sort of magical in that it started small and it just evolved and it
produces a substantial amount of money. It's all based on trust," he says.

He calls his life vocation a "happy accident."

His dream of a thousand pumpkin patches almost came true this year. His
company, Pumpkin Patch USA, will deliver pumpkins to 988 churches in 42
states during October. Six hundred ninety-seven of those congregations are
United Methodist. 

Hamby only sends his pumpkins to churches or other nonprofit organizations,
and his crops have helped churches build homes for the homeless, send youth
on countless mission trips and even bring people to Christ.

You see, in the right hands, pumpkins can perform miracles.

A healing patch

The Rev. Rob Parsons saw pumpkins heal his community after Hurricane Andrew
struck Florida in 1992.

"It was my first appointment, Faith United Methodist Church in Miami," he
recalls. "I came in June, and Hurricane Andrew hit us at the end of August.
In the middle of all the chaos, someone said to me, 'By the way, we ordered
some pumpkins.'"

At the time, Parsons thought a truckload of pumpkins was the last thing he
needed. But when the pumpkins arrived, they gave the community a reason to
gather - and heal.

"We made $9,000 that year, and that is how we were able to pay our
apportionments," he says.

Parsons, on leave from the ministry after the birth of his third child, now
works in Pumpkin Patch headquarters in North Carolina.

He says pumpkins have brought people into the church, and he knows of cases
where pastors have even led some people to Christ in the pumpkin patch.

"In a pumpkin field, people lose the stereotype of what a Christian is and
just open up," he says.

Perfect place for pumpkins

Janice Hamby, Richard's wife and pumpkin partner, stays in Greensboro, N.C.,
while Richard goes out to the fields in Farmington.

The Hambys first grew their pumpkins in North Carolina, but Hurricane Hugo
changed that when it struck in 1989.

"Hurricane Hugo wiped out my fields, so I had to look for another place to
grow my pumpkins," Richard says. He found the perfect place on land owned by
the Navajo Nation. Pumpkins are grown through the Navajo Agricultural
Products Industry, the Navajo Nation's farming and agribusiness enterprise.

Farmington only gets 4 to 6 inches of rain a year. The irrigation system set
up on the Navajo land lets the farmers control the amount of water the crops
need. Pumpkins are pampered in their soft beds of silky, brown dirt. 

The weather is perfect for pumpkins - hot during the day and cool at night.
They grow plump, round and orange just at the right time for harvest in late
September and early October.

Most of the workers harvesting the pumpkins are from the Navajo reservation.
Pumpkin Patch USA pumps more than $2 million into the local Navajo economy
through jobs and land rent permits.

Stepping out on faith

Tina Jones, chief financial officer for Pumpkin Patch USA, says the best
thing about her job is knowing she is really making a difference.

"Last year, the individual churches that sold pumpkins kept for their own
various projects over $3.5 million," she says. "They used their money for
hospice, for mission trips, for Habitat for Humanity - a lot of different
projects. It's a great feeling to be a part of an organization that provides
those kinds of benefits."

Jones says it is a business based on faith.
   
Pumpkin Patch USA grows the pumpkins and ships them to churches at no charge.
The churches take the pumpkins on consignment and are not responsible for
anything broken, damaged, stolen, rotten or left over at the end of the sale.
Back at pumpkin headquarters, the staff just waits for the churches to send
the money.

"What happens is we incur a tremendous amount of expense before we ever ship
the first pumpkin - millions of dollars," Jones says. "And then we send them
to the churches completely on faith, on trust that they will set up their
patch and sell pumpkins and be diligent in that process."

The churches keep 25 to 40 percent of the profit, depending on their gross
sales. More information is available at www.pumpkinsusa.com or by calling
(800) 453-9793.

Hamby says he has heard the United States might have a pumpkin shortage this
year because of so much rain on the East Coast.

Grinning, his parting words are: "Buy a pumpkin from one of the churches this
year. It's going to be a short year, and it should be a good year for the
churches."

# # #

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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