What is up. I found this article on-line. Its about the orchard where I grew up and the place where my parents still work. I hope ya'll enjoy reading it. My mom works in the warehouse packing plant and my dad works out in the orchard.
Servant-Leadership Blossoms at Broetje Orchard
by Cheryl Broetje, Broetje Orchards
(Cheryl Broetje and her husband Ralph are owners of Broetje Orchards, a 4,000 acre orchard operation located near Prescott, Washington. Established in 1980, Broetje Orchards' apples are marketed worldwide to stores under the FirstFruits of Washington label. The orchard and warehouse employs 900 people year-round, plus an additional 900 people during harvest time. Broetje Orchards is committed to the belief that faith and commerce can thrive together. The Broetje's have taken the lead in creating a community/family environment for its largely-Hispanic workforce. Employment, affordable housing, daycare services and education facilities on-site help employees grow personally and raise their families in a healthy environment. The commitment to servant-leadership has deep roots at Broetje Orchards.--Editors)
When I first read Robert Greenleaf's test of a servant-leader, it was the last line - "and what is the effect on the least privileged in society" - that leaped out at me. As the owners of a business, we have always known that we must empower our people to help us reach our business goals of producing, packing and shipping excellent fruit to customers. What society does not expect from the business sector, or hold it accountable for, is its commitment to gauge its behavior by its effects on the least privileged in society, both in the U.S and for the 94% of our neighbors who live outside of the United States, three billion of which exist on 5% of the total resources available while the top 1% uses up 85%.
When we started our business, we had nothing but a dream and the commitment to work it out. It was with the help of others who gave us every opportunity to learn, to participate, that we learned to fly. We needed an empowering team around us. When we finally became financially successful, it would have been easy to continue stockpiling money (as opposed to true wealth) around us. However, the spiritual values that we are also committed to would not let us. For us, it was impossible to separate business goals from spiritual values which promote the equality and connectedness of all people, using their unique gifts and skills to serve one another while together serving the common good.
In our business, those who are most often left out are Hispanic farmworkers and their families. As first and second generation immigrants, many had little or no formal education. But, like us, they had a dream in their hearts, and a desire to serve. They just needed an empowering team around them. We started with their felt needs for decent, affordable housing, and child-care facilities that would prepare their children to start kindergarten in the U.S. and be on par with Anglo children in language and social skills. We looked around for who was ready to grow. They have become our pre-school staff, housing managers, and social service workers in addition to becoming agribusiness managers on a world-class level. Along the way, we have implemented continuing-education goals for these people according to their stated needs. Over the years, we have become a training ground for emerging Hispanic leaders, many of whom go on to become first time home owners, and eventually take their place of leadership within more traditional institutions serving their communities.
In the 1980s and 1990s our business formed several other for-profit and not-for-profit entities around the same values and goals of reaching out to those who have been sitting on the sidelines, just waiting for an opportunity to be asked to dance. These people included at-risk teens, and single moms and their children, for example. In order to provide a structure to help us do that, we started a Servant Leadership School, in which we look for people with a vision, and help incubate their dream until it is birthed in the form of a service program among a specific, underserved, people-group.
While our Servant Leadership School (SLS) offers both faith-based and business track classes, we prefer to integrate the curriculum around spiritual values that, when lived out, are good for the health of business as well as the health of its employees, surrounding community, environment, and other stakeholding entities.
In our business, we most often use Greenleaf's The Servant as Leader booklet and workbook guide as a curriculum, facilitated by on-site managers. We have appreciated having access to the translation in Spanish, and offer classes bi-lingually. These small-group opportunities, given during work hours (1-1/2 hours weekly), not only stimulate the desire to read and reflect more deeply on life, but also build community by deepening mutual understanding and trust, as well as promote civility through conversation about real life challenges, and responses that lift individuals and promote the common good.
Servant-Leadership Blossoms at Broetje Orchard
by Cheryl Broetje, Broetje Orchards
(Cheryl Broetje and her husband Ralph are owners of Broetje Orchards, a 4,000 acre orchard operation located near Prescott, Washington. Established in 1980, Broetje Orchards' apples are marketed worldwide to stores under the FirstFruits of Washington label. The orchard and warehouse employs 900 people year-round, plus an additional 900 people during harvest time. Broetje Orchards is committed to the belief that faith and commerce can thrive together. The Broetje's have taken the lead in creating a community/family environment for its largely-Hispanic workforce. Employment, affordable housing, daycare services and education facilities on-site help employees grow personally and raise their families in a healthy environment. The commitment to servant-leadership has deep roots at Broetje Orchards.--Editors)
When I first read Robert Greenleaf's test of a servant-leader, it was the last line - "and what is the effect on the least privileged in society" - that leaped out at me. As the owners of a business, we have always known that we must empower our people to help us reach our business goals of producing, packing and shipping excellent fruit to customers. What society does not expect from the business sector, or hold it accountable for, is its commitment to gauge its behavior by its effects on the least privileged in society, both in the U.S and for the 94% of our neighbors who live outside of the United States, three billion of which exist on 5% of the total resources available while the top 1% uses up 85%.
When we started our business, we had nothing but a dream and the commitment to work it out. It was with the help of others who gave us every opportunity to learn, to participate, that we learned to fly. We needed an empowering team around us. When we finally became financially successful, it would have been easy to continue stockpiling money (as opposed to true wealth) around us. However, the spiritual values that we are also committed to would not let us. For us, it was impossible to separate business goals from spiritual values which promote the equality and connectedness of all people, using their unique gifts and skills to serve one another while together serving the common good.
In our business, those who are most often left out are Hispanic farmworkers and their families. As first and second generation immigrants, many had little or no formal education. But, like us, they had a dream in their hearts, and a desire to serve. They just needed an empowering team around them. We started with their felt needs for decent, affordable housing, and child-care facilities that would prepare their children to start kindergarten in the U.S. and be on par with Anglo children in language and social skills. We looked around for who was ready to grow. They have become our pre-school staff, housing managers, and social service workers in addition to becoming agribusiness managers on a world-class level. Along the way, we have implemented continuing-education goals for these people according to their stated needs. Over the years, we have become a training ground for emerging Hispanic leaders, many of whom go on to become first time home owners, and eventually take their place of leadership within more traditional institutions serving their communities.
In the 1980s and 1990s our business formed several other for-profit and not-for-profit entities around the same values and goals of reaching out to those who have been sitting on the sidelines, just waiting for an opportunity to be asked to dance. These people included at-risk teens, and single moms and their children, for example. In order to provide a structure to help us do that, we started a Servant Leadership School, in which we look for people with a vision, and help incubate their dream until it is birthed in the form of a service program among a specific, underserved, people-group.
While our Servant Leadership School (SLS) offers both faith-based and business track classes, we prefer to integrate the curriculum around spiritual values that, when lived out, are good for the health of business as well as the health of its employees, surrounding community, environment, and other stakeholding entities.
In our business, we most often use Greenleaf's The Servant as Leader booklet and workbook guide as a curriculum, facilitated by on-site managers. We have appreciated having access to the translation in Spanish, and offer classes bi-lingually. These small-group opportunities, given during work hours (1-1/2 hours weekly), not only stimulate the desire to read and reflect more deeply on life, but also build community by deepening mutual understanding and trust, as well as promote civility through conversation about real life challenges, and responses that lift individuals and promote the common good.
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