MEDA's board in profile: Sid Burkey, Dorchester, Nebraska

Day job: Sid Burkey is president of Burkey Farms Inc., a tech-savvy family agribusiness firm that grows 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans and raises 60,000 pigs a year, shipping a semi-load a day to market. “We try to stay on the leading edge of environmental issues and production science and aim for great working relationships in the community,” Sid says. He and his family also operate a construction and earthmoving company as well as Digitec, which designs and manufactures wireless monitoring and controlling devices for remote management of industrial and agricultural processes.
     The Burkey family has a great passion for integrating faith and work, and see MEDA as an ally in helping align meaning and purpose in their business ventures. He also likes the way MEDA brings good news and hope to poor people in the spirit of Luke 4:18. “Practical resourcing for the poor is important for us, helping them with everything from production expertise to production-market linkages and also with the financial underpinnings of capital.”
 
Most fun: A “real high point is seeing the light come on” when college students attend a MEDA convention and discover innovative ways to help the poor and live out their faith, says Sid, who with his wife, Peg, has volunteered at Hesston College and provided convention scholarships. Even more exciting is when they become “MEDA lifers” after graduation, he adds.
 
Hobbies: An avid reader, Sid likes music, walking, tennis and golf – and playing with his grandkids.

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