A-maze-ing time: Farm festivities provide assistance for families in need

By Brenna Wiegand

Last spring, Jeff Roth of G & C Farms was thinking about the need for hope. He was also thinking about the farm’s second annual harvest celebration; namely, a design for this year’s corn maze.

“The past couple years of tough economic times we’ve had creates not only financial but personal stress in our lives,” Roth said. “I had just been on a tour of Hope Station and I kept thinking about the word ‘hope.’”

He appreciates Hope Station’s mission to help the “working-in-need” people who often fall through the cracks because they make too much for governmental assistance but not enough to pay all their bills.

“Their desire is to provide a hand-up, not a hand-out,” Roth said.

He thought of Marion-Polk Food Share, providing food for people at risk of hunger through a network of more than 80 food pantries, meal sites and other agencies.

G & C Farms – for Roth’s parents, Gerald and Carolyn – was started by Gerald’s parents in the 1920s and now includes a fourth generation on the farm, most of whom attended Silverton schools. Owners Brian and Karen Martin, Jeff and Jennifer Roth and their cousins Paul and Kathy Roth agreed the theme of this year’s corn maze would be “Finding Hope in 2010” and that it should benefit and include the logos of Hope Station and Marion-Polk Food Share.

They also wanted it to be bigger than life.

They couldn’t have created the three-phase, 13-acre, cut-to-precision maze of field corn, Roth said, without the help of The MAiZE. Based in Provo, Utah. Iit is the world’s largest corn maze consulting firm, assisting clients in creating their own custom maze designs and providing just about anything associated with such an undertaking.

“Corn mazes are just fun,” Roth said. “I just love to get out there on the mower. It’s the creative end of farming. I find myself more aware of the beauty out there and noticing all the varying shades of green.”

G & C Farms has 1,100 acres in production, its main crops being berries, grass seed, wheat and green beans. Several years ago, the farm purchased La Suisse pie-making business and it became Willamette Valley Fruit Co. Now also producing frozen fruit, jams, syrups and honey, WVFC operates a high production fruit-processing facility and a farm store with fresh produce, U-pick opportunities, coffee and other treats.

“We’ve been taking some risks here in order to move forward in new directions that enable us to connect more directly with the community and with our customers,” he said. “I don’t know what all the answers are, but I do know that it’s about perspective. Instead of moving in fear, we have to look for opportunities and find the hope that helps us create a new energy – for our economy, for our relationships and for our personal lives.”

G & C Farms family wants to remind people that the world is still full of beauty – and opportunity.

“We believe that all of us have gifts to contribute to our world, to our families and to our communities,” he said. “And we’re trying to find out and use those things here at the farm as we expand our business.

“With the harvest festival, we’re inviting people to come and hopefully find some hope in the midst of their stresses, out in the country on the farm,” he said, “and provide them with an opportunity to bring hope to others through their donations.” Proceeds from the maze admission benefit the two non-profits, but guests are also encouraged to bring cans of food to further the cause.

“Salem means ‘City of Peace’ and Chemeketa means ‘Gathering Place,’” Roth said, “so this whole area and its surrounding areas are a place where they gathered to find peace and hope. …We all have areas where we’re broken and need to have a new level of peace.”