Heifer International gives the gift of animals

updated 2:11 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2006

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Instead of waiting in line with hundreds of others for a chance at nabbing the year’s hottest Christmas gifts, Food Network chef Alton Brown decided on an intangible alternative for the people on his list — a donation to Heifer International.

Brown is on a growing list of donors who give to the Little Rock-based charity at the holidays after finding that, sometimes, the perfect gift for the person who has everything is to give them nothing — except the satisfaction of knowing money was spent to help poor people worldwide.

“If I can get a couple of cows in Russia, bees to people in Kentucky, or a couple of flocks of geese to folks in China, that actually matters and I feel really good about it,” Brown said from his Atlanta office at Be Square Productions, the company that produces his “Good Eats” show for the cable television network.

Heifer International works in 50 countries to provide animals ranging from snails and silkworms to elephants and water buffalo. The charity’s goal is to provide the livestock to needy families so they can produce a product, such as milk or silk, and support themselves. Recipients are required to give some of the animals’ offspring to neighbors to pass on the gift.

The communities where Heifer works choose recipients typically through a democratic process, said Ray White, a spokesman for the organization. “Sometimes they’ll pick families that are ready first, that have most developed food security system for the animals,” White said.

Charity has roots in Spanish Civil War
The 62-year-old organization began when Dan West formed Heifers for Relief after working as a Church of the Brethren relief worker handing out rations of milk to children during the Spanish Civil War.

West thought that providing families with livestock and training would help them provide for themselves and not have to depend on others for food. So in 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pa., bound for Puerto Rico.

White said that Heifer has “denominational partners” on its 15-person board, but is not affiliated with any religious organization. The charity now has a list of 7,000 corporate donors.

Be Square Productions donates a Gift Ark every year — a $5,000 donation that includes two each of Heifer’s animals, including cows, sheep, camels, oxen, water buffalo and rabbits, among many others. The animals go wherever they are needed most.

Brown donates money himself and in the names of his clients. Many times, he said, the people in whose name the donation was given are honored when they receive the gift card explaining that others will benefit from the money.

“I think a lot of people realize ’We’ve got a lot,”’ Brown said. “And it’s not that they don’t need anything, but this gift actually has meaning. We tell them the earth is going to be a better place in your name.”

For Victoria Faust, 17, a personal decision to donate to Heifer turned into a larger project that involved her mother’s chiropractic business and the generosity of her mother’s patients.

Faust, from Madison, Ga., decided in 2004 that she would solicit donations for Heifer at Christmas from friends and family, with hopes of raising enough money to buy a Gift Ark. She raised $3,000 that year, but wanted to do more.

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