Giving Back is the Secret to Happiness for this Dairy Couple

What’s the secret to life? Travel to Laurens, South Carolina and you likely meet Glen and Marilyn Easter of Eastglen Jerseys, who can share not only their passion and wisdom of dairy farming, but their secrets to leading a happy life.

Part of that secret to happiness for the Easters, who are both hardworking and honest, is the power of giving back to their community. In addition to owning and operating a family Jersey cow dairy farm, the Easters wholeheartedly believe in making time for community service work.

Glen, who fell in love with farming from an early age, knew his contribution to society would be helping feed the world. This is a role both he and Marilyn take seriously and are extremely passionate about. “We both grew up in the 4-H program and were raised to do community service, so it’s been a natural fit for us to be involved in our communities in many ways,” Marilyn says.  

In addition to milking 300 registered Jerseys twice daily, the Easters roll up their sleeves and have become very involved in their local community. The dynamite duo has served on several boards and committees not only in their community, but also on the state and national levels.

Through their community service roles over the years, the Easters have come to realize the importance of teaching people where their food comes from and the love and care that goes into the food that is produced.

Local Food Bank

In 2015, through a 4-H community service project, Glen and Marilyn quickly became aware of the need and lack of resources with their local food bank. “We found refrigeration was limited or not available at all,” says Glen. “So, there wasn’t any milk to go with that box of cereal.”

Learning that milk was the most requested and least donated food to food banks, the Easters decided to become part of the solution to their local food insecurity problem. Twice a week, Eastglen Farm would purchase and deliver milk primarily from their own pockets, but also with the help from the Farm Bureau Women’s Committee and 4-H Dairy Club, to donate to United Ministries Food Bank.

All in all, the Easters donate 24-28 gallons of whole milk weekly that they purchase from local grocery stores, totaling some 8,700 gallons of milk donated to date.

At first, milk was stored in an old refrigerator, but when COVID-19 hit and schools became closed, the Easters knew the demand for dairy would be even greater. “I applied for a grant through the Dairy Alliance to get a larger new cooler which allowed for every family to receive a gallon of milk,” says Marilyn. “Because of that, Harvest Hope can provide additional dairy products for those in need. It is very fulfilling to have the means and ability to give to those people in our community the gift of a great dairy product.”

The Easters believe these off-the-farm connections and conversations have not only developed friendships, but have provided new opportunities for them to tell their dairy messages and share their farm’s history.

Eastglen Farms History

More than ninety years ago, Glen Easter’s parents exchanged their wedding vows on Prince Edward Island in Canada. When Glen was four years old, his family and dairy farm moved south to Addison, Vermont. Glen was the only sibling that elected to stay on the New England dairy farm and devote his life to agriculture.

Warmer weather and an All-Jersey milk market enticed the Easters to move three families and their 150 head of registered Jersey cows to South Carolina in 1978. Today, two different cousins’ sons, Frank and Ernie Easter, represent the third generation to be a major part of the success of the Eastglen dairy operation that includes 300 registered Jerseys and 360 acres.

Extensive Community Involvement

Eastglen was the first farm to join their chamber of commerce and Marilyn would attend the business after hours to network with others, paving the way for her to serve on their board of directors. This led to Marilyn’s involvement with the Chamber’s beautification program which was a county-wide clean-up program. “I was tired of seeing people throwing trash out of their cars,” she says.

Since joining in the early 2000s, Marilyn has served as chairman and she is proud that the Chamber now has an ag committee, an ag web page and also fellow farmers are members of the chamber. “Our goal has always been to connect and team up the Chamber of Commerce with Farm Bureau and Extension for events and that has proven to be very exciting,” she continues.

Marilyn is not shy, especially when the opportunity knocks to speak about the dairy industry and the value of milk in the diet. She has been the opening speaker for the South Carolina School Nutrition Convention, has spoken to community colleges, tech schools, various community organizations, groups and schools. Furthermore, both she and Glen spoke to South Carolina Physicians Board and Marilyn comments that once a doctor walked out of the meeting saying, “I grew up on a dairy farm and became a doctor because I did not want to work as hard as those two people walking out the door!”

Proud to represent dairy farmers and the strong values they are known for has the couple always looking for opportunities to passionately tell their dairy messages. Several years ago, HGTV came to their community to film, ‘Town Haul.’ “They were in our community for three months to renovate or create things our community needed,” Glen says. “It started with a Town Hall meeting and selecting six projects and the stars were given gift bags from different businesses in town.”

Without hesitation, Marilyn naturally stepped right up and made dairy gift bags for the stars. Because of that, Eastglen Farm was approached to have one of the stars milk a cow. “I have always told my 4-Hers when opportunity knocks, open the door and this was one of those opportunities,” Marilyn comments.

The list of involvements both Marilyn and Glen have been involved with is endless. Glen has served on the DFA corporate board, DMI board member, Dairy Alliance Chairman, World Dairy Expo director and much more. Marilyn is a Holstein Foundation board member, has served on the Young Dairy Leaders Institute (YDLI) board of directors, Laurens County Farm Bureau President, Clemson Extension 4-H Foundation board member and more.

For Glen and Marilyn Easter, the secret of happiness is twofold stepping up and being involved in their community and promoting agriculture in every possible way they can. Both of which causes the dairy couple’s smile to stretch wide and fills their hearts with pride and purpose.