ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Founded in 2024 by a group of farmers motivated to give back to their community and their school, the Mustang Farm Foundation received $10,000 in grant money from Pioneer Seed and its parent company, Corteva Agriscience, and Agri Center LLC, a local Pioneer Seed dealer in Plains.
Foundation President Brett Reiss said USD 483 in 2024 purchased 320 acres of farm ground to help with the need for water rights.
“With more kids going to school at Southwestern Heights High School and Junior High, there’s more need for the water for sanitary reasons, but also for groundskeeping,” he said.
After purchasing the land, Reiss said foundation leaders approached the USD 483 Board of Education for options for the land.
“They’d asked us for options on what to do with the grounds – if they should rent it out or other different ideas,” he said.
In the end, Reiss said foundation officials chose to start a non-profit foundation to rent the farm from the district to give them a return on its investment.
“We decided we would use the proceeds from the farm to generate scholarships for graduates of Southwestern Heights and USD 483,” he said.
As the district is a farming community, Reiss said the foundation leveraged vendors, suppliers, users and other farmers to try to grow a crop on the land and get inputs covered by donations.
“All of the management, labor and equipment that is needed to farm these acres are donated by area farmers,” he said. “Vendors have pitched in to help us with their inputs – fertilizer, seed and chemicals. Users have offered a premium for our product – our grain, our sales – as a donation to help support the cause. It’s been a huge success.”
Starting in 2028, the foundation will award scholarships to qualified students who choose to attend post-secondary education, and Reiss said qualifications are based on a merit-based points system.
“In their time at Southwestern Heights, we will track criteria like GPA and ACT scores,” he said. “Most of the points are heavily weighted to performance in the classroom, but also, points are awarded to extracurricular activities. There’s life lessons to be learned on the football field, on the volleyball court, on the track and in FFA with judging events, serving on student body councils and governing boards. We want to encourage participation at Southwestern Heights and also award kids for their hard work and success.”
As part of the system, Reiss said the points graduates accumulate will be reflected with a scholarship opportunity.
“The more a kid pours their heart and soul into the school and gets involved, the more they will be awarded for that,” he said. “We feel it’s a great way to encourage involvement and participation, but also award success and hard work the kids are putting in here.”
As for the grant, Reiss said foundation officials applied for it with Pioneer Seed and Corteva through Agri Center, who he said has been behind the vision for the farm from the beginning.
“They’ve been a great partner of ours,” he said. “They reached out. This grant was available, so we applied for it, and we were awarded it.”
Reiss said the grant money goes to community betterment and investing money back into the community.
“What better way to invest in the community than to invest in our youth and create possibilities for the youth,” he said.
The grant from Pioneer’s corporate office and Corteva was for $5,000, and that was later matched by Agri Center for $5,000, making the total grant money $10,000. Reiss said the money will help pay bills such as gas, fertilizer, electricity and other needs not covered by donations from farmers, vendors and users.
“This money will help sustain this farm and help us be more impactful to students,” he said.
Reiss said receiving the grant money was a blessing.
“It’s wonderful when you have companies that invest back into our community,” he said. “They see what we’re doing out here can have a huge impact for the lives of students of USD 483.”
Reiss said the foundation’s goals include encouraging participation, rewarding success and to have future graduates see the initial investment made, which he hopes will encourage those students to come back to the area and give back to the community in similar ways.
A recent study showed Seward County is the least educated county in Kansas, but Reiss said this is not necessarily a bad thing.
“We have a ton of jobs that are available for high school graduates right out of high school,” he said. “There are some good, well-paying jobs that are available.”
However, Reiss said the foundation gives students a possibility for training through vo-tech and college education.
“It’s an encouragement for kids to continue their education, get some specialized training, get some skills, get an education that will set them apart in the workforce in the future,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with getting high school graduation and going on to get a job right out of high school. There’s very good well paying jobs.”
Still, Reiss said some youth do not realize the possibility of college or vo-tech training.
“We want to make sure we open doors for students and that there’s possibilities to take advantage of and set themselves apart in the workforce after they graduate,” he said.
Naturally, Reiss is excited about the opportunities both the foundation and the grant money present for USD 483.
“We’ve had wonderful community support from a number of farmers, truck drivers,” he said. “We’ve had five different trucking companies show up to harvest our first crop, and some of them were former Southwestern Heights graduates. We’ve got former Southwestern Heights graduates who have aerial application businesses who have helped donate chemicals and applications.”
Reiss said the grants are another example of the generous spirit of community members in the district.
“The success of our foundation depends so heavily on community involvement, and we’ve been blessed to have wonderful community involvement so far,” he said.
