ONTARIO — Evan Hahn said a good number of his co-workers grew up on farms or in 4-H clubs.
“It was a small farm, but it keeps me grounded,” he said.
Hahn is the regional vice president of agricultural lending at the Farm Credit Mid-America Ontario office. The staff celebrated a new office in March located on Lexington-Springmill Road.
“Our grand opening coincided with our patronage week where instead of collecting checks, we give back to show our appreciation and give them the benefit of ownership in the co-operative,” Hahn said.
“We gave back $255 million total as a company and $61 million of that was here in Ohio.”
The company specializes in agricultural lending for farmers and rural homeowners. The business’ mission statement is to “secure the future of rural communities and agriculture.”
Hahn said the financial services cooperative offers agricultural lending, crop insurance, farm loans and rural home loans. The Ontario office serves customers in Richland, Ashland and Morrow counties.
“There’s a strong agricultural community here and we want to continue to be engaged with the agriculture and rural communities,” Hahn said.
“We’ve been in this location for a long time, but we used to be in an older data facility. This was our opportunity to upgrade and have a new office that we could serve our customers from.”
The 875 N. Lexington-Springmill Road location has four full-time staff members, as well as a crop insurance and agricultural loan officer.
“Our crop insurance person covers two offices in Ohio — there are 21 Farm Credit retail offices in the state,” Hahn said. “Usually it’s more convenient for our customers to meet on their property, so that’s what we do.
“Our office is open during normal business hours, but our team members have met clients at 6 a.m., 6 in the evening — we try to work with what’s most convenient for them.”
Hahn said the majority of Farm Credit’s customers are local family farmers. The cooperative partners with customers and local agricultural organizations to stock food banks and offer student scholarships.
“We do ‘Fight Hunger, Stock the Trailer’ which is a friendly, regional competition for our area junior fair boards,” he said “It’s a good way to get the next generation of agriculture doing good and give them an opportunity to give back.
“I think we’ve also given out about 100 scholarships in the past five years to young people pursuing further education in agriculture.”
Farm Credit Mid-America is located at 875 N. Lexington-Springmill Road. More information about what the business offers can be found online.
Business hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The office can be reached at 419-747-4111.
