BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA
At 29, Jason Brown was unfathomably wealthy, famous and excruciatingly unfulfilled. Though the NFL had fed him the American dream with a silver spoon, Brown decided that ‘wealthy football star’ wasn’t the message he wanted etched into his tombstone, and walked away from a $37 million contract and a reputation as one of the best centres in the NFL.
In a conversation with CBS, Brown recalls, “My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life. And I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I’m not. No I’m not.’” After leaving the Rams, Brown was contacted by Carolina, Baltimore and San Francisco—all interested in recruiting him. Brown declined all offers.
“When I think about a life of greatness, I think about a life of service,” Says Brown.
In 2012, Brown walked away from the St. Louis Rams and purchased a plot of farmland in Franklin County, North Carolina. At 17.3 percent, North Carolina has been recognized as one of the top eight states for household food insecurity rates in comparison to the national average. Recognizing this, and despite zero farming experience, the 320 pound NFL star found himself hunched over a laptop, learning how to operate a 1,000 acre farm from YouTube tutorials. After learning about Brown’s initiative, local farming experts and over 600 volunteers quickly flooded Brown’s land to give method to his vision. The result is the organization, First Fruits Farm, run by Brown and working to ensure that the first fruits of every harvest on his land end up in the homes of food-insecure households in North Carolina.
Image credit: CBS
Image credit: CBS
As Brown grew familiar with the necessary farm work, his days became consumed with tractor rides and hand-bombing sweet potatoes into pickup trucks, stating, “When you see them pop up out of the ground, man, it’s the most beautiful thing you could ever see.” According to Huffington Post, last year Brown successfully shelved over 10,000 pounds of cucumbers and 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes in local pantries.
Image credit: CBS
Though his agent is surely sour over losing a multi-million dollar client, Brown contends, “Love is the most wonderful currency that you can give anyone.” There’s truth to this, but with an estimated 14.3 percent of American households experiencing food insecurity last year alone, the hundreds of thousands of pounds of food doesn’t hurt either.
Sources: blog.hu, businessinsider.com, divine-society.com, siemenssays.com
