Grant County hands once again feed the masses at Home Products Dinner

Sept. 17--ULYSSES -- When a community comes together, anything is possible.

It is a lesson that children in Grant County have been learning for generations, as their hands are put to work each year to help put on the annual Grant County Home Products Dinner.

Some of those children, now grown, have been scholarship recipients and are now back in leadership roles. Lori Deyoe is one of these. She's the fifth-year committeewoman, which means this year, she was in charge of the cleanup crew for Tuesday night's event.

She's been participating in the event since she was 7.

"I helped serve the senior citizens and shucked corn when I was in 4H," she said. "When I moved back home, they asked me to sit on the committee."

That is a five-year commitment. The first year, she ran the decorations committee, then she was in charge of coordinating all the donut daisy events like the corn shucking. The third year is coordinating and gathering volunteers, fourth is coordinating the overall event and the last is cleanup.

It is a lot of work, but something she'd do again in a heartbeat.

"It's in my heart, and in a lot of people's hearts, and that's why you see it thrive today," she said. "It's giving back, and it's paying it forward."

Deyoe received one of the scholarships given out by the proceeds from the event. She studied ag economics at Kansas State University and then came back to southwest Kansas. She's presently a grain originator for Garden City Co-op. Now, her children are involved in the local community event, so it has come full circle.

"My son's actually fourth generation," she said, "because my husband's grandpa sat on the committee, as well."

It takes 700 volunteers with the same dedication and devotion for the community in their hearts to make the dinner happen each year, as well as 5,000 pounds in homegrown commodities. The dinner is now in its 52nd year.

Planning for the event starts in November, but the first big workday is usually in July.

"The whole community is pretty much involved in that," said Marieta Hauser, Grant County Chamber of Commerce executive director. "We don't know until two or three days beforehand when we're going to pick the corn, but everyone knows it's coming. We have a phone tree, and the swim team goes out and picks it, the 4H groups shuck it and different civic organizations come help clean the silks off."

Community volunteers cut the corn off the cob, and it is then blanched, put into freezer bags and stored at a local grocery store until the morning of the event, when it is thawed and cooked.

Watermelons are picked by hand, and other hands clean those melons and cut them. Still other hands take out the roasters, cleaning them and cooking the 750 pounds worth of 10-pound rolled roasts.

Some of it is probably produced at the local feedlot, but it is sourced from local grocery stores.

Simultaneously, the famous milo donuts, a blend of wheat and milo, are being produced by the Daylight Donuts shop in Ulysses.

"We have a notebook four inches thick telling us what to do," Hauser said.

It has everything in it from the layout of the building to the number of tables and number of chairs to put at each table.

"It is a massive undertaking," Hauser said.

So massive, that she was sure not one more thing could be added. When a donation of cheese was offered in 40-pound blocks, she demurred. "Who would cut all that cheese?" she asked.

"We have just tapped out our groups," she said.

Bob Dale, a local radio personality and economic development director, found a group that would do the cutting, and cheese was duly added to the generous plate of beef, squash, scalloped potatoes, beans, tomatoes, watermelon, ice cream and milo donuts.

The dinner started because of a proud boast by then legislator Willis Christian who claimed he could produce everything he needed to live on his ranch. He invited 12 of his fellow legislators and the lieutenant governor to dinner that year to prove his point. It became an annual tradition, and after the legislator retired, businessmen in the community decided it was important to preserve the tradition.

With that strong root in politics, the event has become something of a political magnet.

Gov. Sam Brownback sat at the head table Tuesday and presented plaques to co-chairs and to the citizen of the year, Linda Fort. He also spoke during the event, taking care before doing so to recognize his gubernatorial opponent, Democrat Paul Davis, in the crowd.

There were several other political hopefuls in the crowd, as well. Among them Democrats Jim Sherow (U.S. 1st District), Dennis Anderson (insurance commissioner) and Carmen Alldritt (state treasurer).

Alldritt, and state Democrat chair Joan Wagnon were together in the food line discussing whimsically whether it was more advantageous to be at the front or end of the line.

"If we were at the first of the line, we could work the entire line," Alldritt suggested.

"No, no the end of the line is better," Wagnon said. "We can talk to everyone."

Wagnon said she generally always attends the event.

"Where else do you get 2,000 people all together in southwest Kansas, and good food, too?" she asked.

Wagnon has been closely following the court case involving Democrat Chad Taylor, who is attempting to have his name removed from the ballot for the U.S. Senate race.

The word, however, on whether she intends to nominate a replacement.

"I'm waiting to see what the court decides," she said.

Brownback recognized World War II veterans in the audience, as well as married couples.

"It's a beauty to behold," he said, "and I just want to honor and recognize it because it's the point of my talk tonight. We have a nation that is struggling, and whenever you're struggling, you go back to your basics."

These, he said, are faith, family and freedom.

"We built the country off of it," he said. "We have a motto in this nation, in God we trust, and we built this nation around strong families."

Grant County has strong families, and the Home Products dinner shows it.

Another thing the dinner shows, Brownback said, is the farming.

"We're eating Grant County home products, all produced here in one of the greatest farming states in the world," he said. "We're feeding so many people around the world, and we are going to feed them with better yields and better crops."

Brownback pointed out the ice cream, which is made on Main Street in Ulysses, and added that Kansas is one of the fastest growing dairy states in America.

"We are going to continue to do that," Brownback said. "Farming is at the core of what we do."

Brownback thanked the audience for what they do.

"Communities like yours, continuing to pull together and move the right way, are showing the way," he said.

Bob Farmer, of the Farmer's Almanac, finished the evening out with a little bit of almanac humor.

"Every where I go, people ask me a couple questions," he said. "And three or four people asked me tonight. 'Is that your real name?' they asked. Is Bob Farmer your real name'?"

He's never actually liked that name, he told them.

"I'd rather have something cool, fancy and memorable," he said. "I like Sam Brownback. Bob Brownback. That'd be good. It'd be even better said backward. Farmer Bob."

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