Nationwide
In May of 2007, a giant tornado with 200-miles-per-hour winds drilled a deadly path across Greensburg, Kansas, destroying both homes and businesses. The only business left was a concrete grain elevator.
But for many of the farming community's 1,600 residents, seeing the Southern Plains Cooperative elevator standing defiantly amidst the rubble was a sign of hope.
Just hours after the category F5 tornado, a commercial claims adjuster for Nationwide Agribusiness Insurance arrived to help members resurrect their co-op business.
The Southern Plains Cooperative, a grain and farm supply/service cooperative which owns the grain elevator, is among an estimated 20 million policyholders that cooperatively own their insurance provider. Nationwide is among several hundred U.S. mutual insurers that operate according to cooperative principles and with the policyholder-owner's best interests in mind.
To help the Southern Plains Cooperative get back on its feet, the Nationwide representative set up temporary offices and hired the grain co-op's employees to help clean up the site, assuring each would continue receiving paychecks. And within days after the disaster, Southern Plains Cooperative was operational — just in time for the region's wheat harvest.
Learn more about Nationwide at www.nationwide.com.