All members, you should have received in the past week, your invitation to the Membership Appreciation Breakfast. The breakfast is set for Friday, July 15th. We will be serving from 6:30 a.m. until 10: 30 a.m. There will be pancakes, eggs, whole hog sausage, and hashbrowns. There will be a number of door prizes along with packs for the kids. So mark your calendar and come join us! Also remember to bring your postcard to register for the many door prizes.

This Saturday, the Young Leaders are hosting their Annual Harvest for All. This will be the seventh year for the Harvest for All. In the past six years, the Young Leaders have donated over $75,430 to the four food pantries that serve Carroll County. The only reason they were able to do this was the generosity of the farmers in Carroll County. If you would like to donate to the Harvest for All, you may give our office a call at 244-3001.

It turns out there is such thing as a free lunch after all, thanks to Illinois Farm Families. In fact, they are offering Illinois residents the chance to win a free breakfast, lunch and dinner – by way of free groceries for an entire year.

From July 5 through Oct. 2, 2011, Illinois residents can register for two grand prizes of “Free Groceries for a Year!”* at www.FarmersFeedUS.org. Two additional sweepstakes prizes also are being offered, including an Illinois Fall Get-Away package to a bed and breakfast and a Family Harvest Day package out on an Illinois farm.

Upon visiting www.FarmersFeedUs.org, consumers can register to win by “meeting one of five Illinois family farmers” through a short video showing how each produces safe, healthy food. Visitors can register up to five times every day by watching all five featured farmer videos.

The Farmers Feed US website features beef, corn, dairy, hog, and soybean farmers from across the state, sharing information about their farms and their families. In addition to guiding visitors through the sweepstakes registration, each farmer also offers a brief online farm tour.

Featured Illinois Farm Families include:

Deb and Ron Moore, soybean farmers from Roseville

Brent and Kathy Scholl, pork farmers from Polo

Dale and Linda Drendel, dairy farmers from Hampshire

Mike and Lynn Martz, beef farmers from Maple Park

Steve and Elizabeth Ruh, corn farmers from Sugar Grove

“As Illinois farmers, we’re thrilled to offer free groceries for a year to the consumers of our great state,” says Deb Moore, one of the featured farmers on FarmersFeedUS.org. “This is an opportunity for Illinois Farm Families to show Illinois consumers how we grow their food, and to let them know we share their values - taking care of our families, taking care of our animals and land and giving back to our communities.”

Over the course of the 90-day sweepstakes, consumers throughout the state will also see and hear from these Illinois Farm Families as they are featured in television and radio advertising, and on Facebook () and Twitter ().