Growing Community: 20 Years of Helping Farm Families Thrive

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Bill Gross. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light. 

Bill Gross is familiar with the rigors of farm life. That’s why it’s no surprise that the North Dakota native founded Farm Rescue, an organization that helps farm and ranch families navigate periods of crisis.  

Growing up on an agricultural and cattle farm, Bill was taught the dedication that’s required to work in the fields and care for animals. However, he also learned about the hardships. During the farm crisis of the 1980s, Bill’s family property faced an uncertain financial future. Told by his parents that they didn’t have the resources to pass the farm down to him, Bill pursued a career as a commercial airline pilot. But wherever he flew in the world, Bill felt connected to life back on the farm. 

“My heart never left the farming community or rural America, and I had a passion to return and do that,” he shares.  

After traveling overseas on various mission trips throughout the years, Bill started to think about the people who needed help in his own backyard. Encouraged by friends to get started sooner rather than wait for his retirement, Bill decided to take action. But first, he needed to find other people who were dedicated to the cause. Bill gathered volunteers and found a company willing to sponsor some farming equipment. 

In their first year of existence, Farm Rescue planted crops for 10 farm families that had experienced major illness, injury or natural disaster. During his days off from his job flying planes, Bill would travel between states, visiting the farms and volunteers while stopping at local businesses to raise the funds to keep the organization afloat. Every year since, the organization has grown, both in terms of the number of families they’ve provided assistance to and the locations they’ve reached.  

Over 1,000 family farms in nine states have received assistance from Farm Rescue, which mobilizes equipment and volunteers to get the tasks taken care of on each farm during the period of hardship. Whether it’s planting, haying, harvesting crops or feeding livestock, volunteers from Farm Rescue arrive at each farm to provide a hand in their time of need.  

“When a farm or ranch family has had an injury or illness, or their farm was burned up or flooded and they can’t get the work done, we come in and do the work for them so they can maintain their livelihood,” explains Bill.   

Bill refers to that assistance Farm Rescue provides as the “tangible” aspect of the organization’s work. However, he says it’s the “intangible” aspect that he’s perhaps even prouder of.  

 “It affects small-town America drastically if you lose these family farms,” he explains. “This helps the communities and the children. Maybe that farm isn’t saddled with debt, or maybe their children can go on to higher education because of our assistance to that farm family, just like myself. We’re providing relief to those families, which hopefully is paying dividends forward in many different ways in society.”  

Kyle Nelson directly experienced the impact of Farm Rescue’s work after his father-in-law suffered a stroke. When a neighbor reached out to Farm Rescue to say that the family’s farm may require assistance, Kyle was blown away by how the organization mobilized to help. A decade later, Kyle serves as Vice President of the organization.  

“The amazing work that Farm Rescue has done and how it’s grown is just very, very impressive,” says Kyle. “The majority of that can be attributed to Bill’s leadership.” 

In 2025, Farm Rescue will celebrate its 20th anniversary. In those two decades of existence, over 1,000 volunteers have stepped up to assist the organization, coming from every state in the nation. But despite its massive success, Bill says Farm Rescue’s work is far from complete.  

“We receive more applications than what we can assist, so our number one goal is growing the capacity of the organization because there are more families in need,” says Bill, who notes that Farm Rescue has already grown “way larger” than he ever envisioned. Still, it all comes back to the lessons that were instilled upon him as a child on the farm in North Dakota. “I was taught to help other people.” 

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Bill? Find local volunteer opportunities.