If you watch the news, spend time on social media or just see the messages on some of the signs and flags waving in yards, it can easily feel like our society and community are made up of rigid thinking, mean and even scary people.
I recently had an experience that proves otherwise. Now that we are providing beef to the restaurant (One13 Social), there are some new government regulations that apply to how we have our beef processed. As we were preparing for this new relationships, I reviewed these regulations and thought we were in alignment with them. It was recently brought to my attention that I had not fully interpretted the regulations correctly and some changes had to be made to be in compliance. (I need to pause the story here for a moment and be clear. There was never any unsafe or anything wrong with how our beef was being processed. It was more a matter of labeling and proper paperwork being in place). I needed to be able to make these changes fast to avoid major disruptions in my ordering schedules and to be able to continue to provide beef to the restaurant without interruption. So, I had a few stressful days. Here is where the greatness in our community was proven. I had to make adjustments to several customer order schedules, made last minute changes with my processors, truckers, partner farmers and called in a few favors to get everything done that needed to be done. When I was finished and had everything in place, in compliance with no significant disruption in our order filling schedule, I was relieved! I was also amazed to the point of tears to realize, every single person I talked to or worked with was incredibly gracious and willing to do what they could to help or simply generously accept adjustments in order fulfillment schedules. I did not have one person express frustration or irritation. I believe this to be rare. It proves to me what I have read about over and over, the negative around us floats to the top in our media, our surroundings and even in our conversations. When it comes down to how people actually treat each other in a face to face manor, we are inherently good and interested in the well being of each other.
I am so thankful for our miscues having been brought to our attention. We are now in full compliance and stepping forward into a future of great possibilities for Carwood. I look forward to being the go to local farm in our area for decades to come!
