Rick Burnette

For over three decades, Rick and Ellen have been engaged in international agriculture development ministry. They served as CBF field personnel for 15 years establishing the Upland Holistic Development Project, an NGO that continues to offer services related to agriculture and community development among hill tribe minority groups along the Thai-Myanmar border. Rick and Ellen founded the ECHO Asia Impact Center in Thailand before returning to the U.S. to work with ECHO at their Florida headquarters. In 2017 the Burnettes founded Cultivate Abundance, where Ellen serves as Executive Director.

Together, Rick and Ellen engage in the community-level food security efforts of Cultivate Abundance for the benefit of farmworker families in Immokalee, Florida and beyond. Cultivate Abundance works alongside the CBF Rural/Urban team and CBF Florida.

Most of the fresh produce in the U.S. is harvested by migrant labor. Migrant farmworker communities often face food insecurity compounded by extreme poverty, discrimination, and legal residence issues.

Immokalee, Florida, is a small farming town of approximately 20,000. More than 2/3rds of America’s wintertime tomatoes and other crops are produced there and yet Immokalee has a poverty rate of almost 45%. According to USDA data, major portions of Immokalee and its environs are classified as food deserts with food prices in farmworker neighborhoods significantly higher than markets and groceries in surrounding communities. The economic and food access challenges of many Immokalee residents are rooted in their migrant worker status.

The mission of Cultivate Abundance is to address the cruel irony of food insecurity among those who harvest our food by mobilizing appropriate resources to alleviate hunger and encourage participation in small-scale food production.

Cultivate Abundance ongoing ministries include:

• Doorstep gardens (container gardens) grown in 5-gallon buckets and dish tubs, enables some provide farmworker households in cramped trailer parks to grow leafy greens and other vegetables just outside their doors.
  
• Community gardens offer collaborative access to fruits and vegetables of preference to farmworker families.
  
• Facilitate donations of fruits and vegetables from area gardeners – including church/institutional and home gardens – which are shared with the Immokalee farmworker community through the Misión Peniel food bank. 

Your generosity in support of the Burnettes and their mission programs will transform lives. Below are examples of how your gifts can empower, equip, and encourage communities and individuals through the power of Christ’s love. When you give, you partner to provide these programs and so much more.

Learn more about Cultivate Abundance at www.cultivateabundance.org. Connect with Rick and Ellen at rburnette@cbf.net.