| Monty's Experience: In 2010, Joey Lankford exchanged a comfortable life running the family business here in Tennessee for working in missions halfway around the world. In search of something Greater, the Lankfords left behind family, friends, and the familiar in search of a unique calling-economic development within South Africa's poorest communities. Between October 2010 and April 2015, Joey worked within the job-creation and development arm of a ministry called Living Hope. In partnership with his stateside church, Joey organized the funds needed to build two greenhouses while training 3 students from a nearby township just south of Cape Town. They planted and maintained 1,500 tomato plants that were sold to local market access partners. That platform, now fully managed by South African locals, utilizes 13 greenhouses and a crop rotation of 7,000 plants to train, disciple, empower, and job-place up to 15 people annually. In early 2015, Joey, Courtney, and their 5 children came back to Tennessee with a sense of calling and a passion to engage poverty and hunger using what they had learned in Africa. Joey, with a group of close friends, started Cul2vate and Joey has led the organization since his return from Africa. He has worked tirelessly to build the farm at Ellington Agricultural Center, promote and engage local partners, bring greater awareness to hunger, addiction, and unemployment, and work alongside those needing a hand up. In 2016, a farm was created on a field at Ellington Agricultural Center. That farm has grown and prospered. He looks forward to the future as Cul2vate becomes a central hub for produce growing, food insecurity conversations, and creating community around those coming out of incarceration or in recovery. |
