Mental Health: The Most Important Crop
When a fire burned down her family’s swine barn in 2018, Jennifer Eichenberger (above, second from right) saw her parents struggle as they tried to rebuild their farming operation. “It was very devastating at first,” Eichenberger says. “Our parents tried to shield us from everything and didn’t talk about it, but you could tell that they weren’t doing OK.” At the same time, Eichenberger witnessed how her Iowa community came together to support her family and raise money so she and her siblings could still show pigs at the county fair.
Years later, when Eichenberger, the current New Hampton FFA Chapter president, attended the Washington Leadership Conference in June 2025, her past experiences served as inspiration for helping others. FFA members at the conference were tasked with coming up with a way to serve their community, and Eichenberger decided to plan an event to raise funds for mental health.
She originally planned to work with her FFA chapter, but when the timeframe conflicted with her chapter’s banquet, she decided to host it on her own. She held the event, called “Mental Health: The Most Important Crop,” this March and raised money for Farm Rescue, a nonprofit that helps farmers and ranchers in times of crisis. The event included a pork loin dinner and a silent auction with donations from local businesses, as well as guest speakers.
Event Prep
It was a lot of responsibility for a high school student to take on, but Eichenberger wasn’t afraid of a challenge — her FFA experiences had taught her to do hard things. She recalls how terrified she was to speak in public for the first time at a horse judging competition. “I am still scared every time I do public speaking,” Eichenberger says. “But FFA has taught me to believe in myself and do things even when I’m scared.”
Lining up the guest speakers for the event proved to be more challenging than Eichenberger expected, as some were reluctant to talk about mental health issues. But when she contacted Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, who she had met through FFA, he was happy to help. She also lined up Danielle Day, a health and human sciences educator with the Iowa State University Extension. “She talked about listening to people when they are struggling and not just trying to fix them,” Eichenberger says. “Some people in the audience were in tears and people were coming up to me afterwards, giving me hugs and saying they were so grateful.”
Although Eichenberger will be starting at Iowa State University this fall, she hopes to hold the event again next year — with her family’s help. She wants to remind people to keep going, even when times are difficult. “Times are tough on the farm,” Eichenberger says, “but there is still hope because we are still here.”
Eichenberger raised $35,000 at this year’s event and hopes next year’s turnout will be even better. “I’m a ‘think big’ kind of person,” she says.
