Family Health and Safety Farm Rescue to expand service to Illinois in 2023 Illinois farm families facing illness, injury, or natural disaster can apply for Farm Rescue's help in 2023. This brings the non-profit's service area to eight states. By Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater is the Family & Farmstead Editor for Successful Farming, sharing interesting family features, heartfelt editorial columns, and important health and safety information. Her favorite thing about her job is meeting interesting people, learning their stories, and sharing them with our readers.Lisa started her career with Successful Farming magazine in 1999, working primarily for the web team and writing product reviews for the magazine. She later wrote for the Living the Country Life magazine and website and has written and edited several cookbooks and other books for Successful Farming and Living the Country Life. Successful Farming's Editorial Guidelines Published on August 24, 2022 Close Photo: Farm Rescue Illinois farm families facing illness, injury, or natural disaster can apply for Farm Rescue's help beginning with spring planting in 2023. Other services including haying, harvest, commodity hauling, and livestock feeding will ramp up throughout the year. The non-profit organization provides assistance at no cost to the farmer. Since its inception in 2005, Farm Rescue has helped more than 800 farm and ranch families in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and South Dakota. READ MORE: Farm Rescue "Farm Rescue is very thankful for the unwavering support from our family of sponsors in helping us grow our service area," says Bill Gross, Farm Rescue founder and president. "We look forward to extending a helping hand to many farm families in crisis throughout the state of Illinois." Gene and Katie Birklid were the 800th family to receive help from Farm Rescue in the fall of 2021 after Gene had to undergo brain surgery. A volunteer from Farm Rescue worked with them ahead of time to come up with a plan and listened to their input. READ MORE: Farm Rescue saves the day: The Birklids' story "He looked at our farm and equipment and we showed him what bins we wanted the beans in," Katie says. "He asked Gene a ton of questions and was very good about making sure he was doing what Gene wanted him to do." Any farm family experiencing a major injury, illness or natural disaster is encouraged to apply at farmrescue.org or by calling 701-252-2017. Referrals are also welcome. "Make the phone call. Check out the website. It's very easy and everyone is super helpful," Katie says. "If you need help, ask." Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit