Ex-NFL star trades the gridiron to grow food for those in need
-
Ira Porter Staff writer
| Louisburg, N.C.
In 2009, Jason Brown was the highest-paid center in the National Football League and could have gone on earning millions of dollars more each year. He turned down that golden opportunity so he could start a family farm and give away most of its harvest: Corn. Sweet potatoes. Fresh fruit such as apples, blackberries, and blueberries.
The former offensive lineman has grown and donated to food banks and communities more than 1.5 million pounds of produce from First Fruits Farm in Louisburg, North Carolina. He has amassed a host of volunteers whom he calls on to help him and his children pick food from the 1,000-acre tract. “This is not a journey for the lighthearted,” Mr. Brown says. “You truly have to believe in this. You have to operate by faith. You have to have some grit and perseverance.”
Mr. Brown grew up in Henderson, about a half-hour drive from Louisburg, and played football when he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was drafted to the Baltimore Ravens in 2005, and in a few years became the NFL’s highest-compensated center when he signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the St. Louis Rams.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onA life of fame and fortune didn’t sit well with former football star Jason Brown. He found more meaning in serving others.
He says that God called him to reevaluate his life when he turned 27 years old – the same age his older brother, Lunsford Brown II, was when he was killed while serving in the Army in Iraq. Mr. Brown made up his mind that he wanted to use his time on Earth for a greater good.
“That was my wake-up call,” Mr. Brown remembers. “I compared everything Lunsford had accomplished in his 27 years in comparison to my 27 years, and I took a long, hard look in the mirror. And there was no comparison.”
Mr. Brown’s brother had died in service to others, and Mr. Brown was a multimillionaire with worldly luxuries. It didn’t sit right with him.
“That’s when I asked God. I said, ‘I know there’s more to me than being a professional athlete. What more do You want me to do with all of the gifts, talents, and the blessings that You have given me?’”
In 2012, Mr. Brown left football behind for farmwork.
Serving hasn’t come easy. The volunteer assistance ebbs and flows like the North Carolina valleys and peaks that the farm’s food reaches. Some fans come just for pictures. Predatory animals have preyed on Mr. Brown’s livestock and the goodies that he grows. Disastrous weather has ruined crops.
“The spirit that he’s created”
After heavy rain from Hurricane Helene caused loss of life and record floods that swallowed homes, cars, and roads four hours away in Asheville, Mr. Brown donated 100 chickens – already plucked, processed, and ready for cooking – from his farm.
“We work with a lot of farmers, but Jason is unique,” says Michael Binger, the Carolinas regional director for the nonprofit Society of St. Andrew. “On the scale of what he does, just to give it away, is special.”
Mr. Binger’s organization collects produce and donations to feed impoverished communities. He says it has been working with First Fruits since the farm’s very first harvest, when Mr. Brown asked whether the organization could mobilize volunteers to help pick food that he wasn’t going to sell through his pay-what-you-can operation.
“Jason just has the ability to draw people to him,” Mr. Binger says. “We have volunteers that the only time they volunteer with us is when they can go out to Jason’s farm, because they just love the spirit that he’s created.”
Mr. Binger brought 200 volunteers to help harvest food in the first weekend in November. The largest group of people he has brought to the farm numbered 1,100, but crops didn’t grow as well this past fall because of bad weather.
“He’s got a mission here”
Bright one Sunday morning, things are busy at the farm. Mr. Brown rolls up to the front of the property in a heavy-duty pickup truck with his work staff: six of his eight children, running in age from 5 to 17. His eldest son, JW, pulls up in a blue tractor. Volunteer Tom Schad, whom Mr. Brown refers to as Brother Tom, meets them at a 4,000-gallon water tank that needs to be fixed for proper irrigation.
Mr. Brown is planning for the future, as a severe drought in June prevented his muscadine grapes from growing. He and Mr. Schad grab tools and get to work.
“I just love the way Jason relates to people and shares his faith, like it’s natural. It’s just an extension of him,” says Mr. Schad, dressed in boots and work pants. “He’s got a mission here to help people.”
An accountant by trade, Mr. Schad enjoys horticulture and gardening. Now that he is nearing retirement, he purchased a five-acre plot in nearby Wake Forest and has asked Mr. Brown to coach him on how to farm the land himself. It just so happens that teaching farmers is what Mr. Brown wants to do next.
“All food isn’t grown equally,” Mr. Brown says. He thinks people should be educated about the food they consume and learn to grow their own responsibly. Food grown on his farm isn’t sprayed with synthetic pesticides, so when his children ask to pick apples to eat, he simply rubs them off on his shirt and passes the fruit to them. He’s also teaching his children to market food and products grown on his farm as side businesses.
The Brown farm has untapped swaths of land, too. It includes 13 ponds, some of which Mr. Brown lets local veterans fish in. Veterans are important to him because of his brother.
The life that Mr. Brown chose suits him and his family well.
“Everything that we have prayed for and asked in Jesus’ name, those prayers have been answered and come to pass,” Mr. Brown says.
