Investing in A Bright Future
Zeeland Farm Services
Zeeland Farm Services, Inc.® has been a successful, family-owned, local business for more than 60 years. Keeping values at the heart of everything it produces and everything it does has contributed much to the success of ZFS.
The motto of Zeeland Farm Services is “Our Family Working for Your Family,” and families — both its own and those of the community — are among the things ZFS values most.
The business was started as a transportation company by Robert Meeuwsen in 1950. Robert’s sons Cliff, Arlen and Robb bought the company in 1992, and now five sons from the third generation are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the business.
“Each one of us began working in a division of the company that interested us and we have come up through the organization, learning the business as we went,” said Cliff, the president of ZFS. Zeeland Farm Services and its affiliate companies now employ about 300 people — including nine family members — in seven states. The Holland/Zeeland area benefits from ZFS choosing to keep its headquarters local, even as the company grows.
“We truly appreciate the family values that are prevalent in the Holland/Zeeland area,” Cliff said. “Throughout the region there are so many good people with a good strong work ethic, which is important for a growing business such as ours looking to build its workforce.”
A key piece of the ZFS legacy is giving back. One of the ways ZFS gives back is by “using less to produce more,” meaning the company works hard to be as environmentally efficient as it can.
The Meeuwsen family also gives back through the Zeeland Farm Services/Meeuwsen Family Fund, an endowed donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. The family is growing the fund as a way of making a long term commitment to invest in the community.
Current and future generations will use this fund to help keep Holland/Zeeland a place where people want to live and work. By establishing the fund as an endowment, the Meeuwsens are continually looking to the future.
“The ZFS/Meeuwsen Family Fund means a great deal to the Meeuwsen family and to ZFS because it shows how much the people at ZFS value the community in which they live,” Cliff said. “Our family, like many others, is a growing family. It won’t be long before the fourth generation joins the business, and someday the fifth. We want to do all we can to help keep the area a great place for all our children, and their children, to grow up and live.”
Cliff and his brothers first learned the value of giving back from their father and mother, who “always taught us to give to our community through our church, as well as other organizations that work hard to help others.”
Zeeland Farm Services and the Meeuwsen family have chosen to focus their giving in West Michigan, which makes the Community Foundation a perfect partner.
“West Michigan, and the Holland/Zeeland area in particular, have been very good to our family and our business. We are proud to call this area our home,” Cliff said.
Donor Advised Funds offers the opportunity to create a low-cost, flexible method of charitable giving. With a Donor Advised Fund, donors make a contribution to the fund during the year that is most convenient or tax advantageous for them. Each year, they recommend the nonprofit organizations in which they want to invest, and CFHZ staff do all the work in administering the grants for them. They may choose to give anonymously or in the name of their fund. Donors enjoy administrative convenience, cost savings and tax advantages by conducting their giving through this type of fund.
Donor Advised Funds also offer the option of allowing children to participate as advisors during the donor’s life or to become advisors after the donor’s death. Many people choose this option as a way to include the next generation in the family’s philanthropy, passing along the joy and values of charitable giving.