Big Dreams: Big Results In Stainless Steel

With 3,000 mouths to be fed three times per day, you can’t just take a few weeks off when the funds run short. FCOP often sees the brochures of those ministries that claim they feed children. That’s easy! Show up when they have some food, sponsor a meal, take some pictures, and claim bragging rights. The problem is, it works great as a fundraiser, and most donors don’t think about the difference between a ministry like that and feeding 3,000 people, 3 times per day, 365 days per year. One thing all Cambodian’s agree on is that a meal means ‘eating rice’.  In 2001, FCOP had expanded to the point where they had to have a dependable source of rice. The prices in the market were very erratic and went down at harvest and rose through the rest of the year. Pa Thom purchased a used rice mill from a man dying of H.I.V. and moved it to Balang, Cambodia, where there was no other rice mill within 18 kilometers. That mill was old when it was purchased but it kept FCOP fed for 22 years. With all the breakdowns from the old rice mill, which originated from Vietnam in the early 1970’s, FCOP was lucky to get 10 tons of poorly milled rice out of it in a week. Now? FCOP mills that much rice in eight hours. This is a video which says it all. Our dream has come true, in stainless steel. Thank you to all of you who gave to support this building project (Rice Mill Video).