MONKS LOOKING FOR NEW INDUSTRY

March 11, 2008

 

On a rainy day in Lent, Mepkin Abbey's New Industry Advisory Panel met at the monastery to be a part of the search for new ways to help the monks support themselves.

Late last year, the monastery decided to phase out their 56 year-old egg production business.

“The ideas presented are creative and exciting,” said Abbot Stan Gumula after the meeting. “Our land is a wonderful resource, and the advisory panel has come up with great ways for us to use it creatively and wisely.

“We hope to find a business that will respect the Monastic tradition of working on the land and caring for the environment, and the Advisory Panel's ideas certainly meet these criteria,” the Abbot said.

The panel included two Piggly Wiggly executives, two Berkeley County business people, a banker, a retired chief financial officer, an organic farmer, a business consultant, and two representatives from the Catholic community.

The panel agreed that finding a product to sell in the Tri-county area is important to maintain connection between the monks and their neighbors. Since Mepkin was established in 1949, the monks have sold bread , cinnamon buns, azaleas & camellias, sawn timber, milk, beef cattle, and of course their famous eggs. People in the Low Country treasure having this tangible connection with the Abbey.

After hearing a presentation about the resources the monastery has to dedicate to any new enterprise, panel members met in two small groups to brain storm ideas. In the groups, they discussed ideas they had researched prior to the meeting and new ones that came up during the discussions.

Ideas that surfaced in the small groups were, on the agriculture side, growing: mushrooms, bamboo for use in production of building and clothing materials, heirloom corn and wheat, organic vegetables and herbs, beets to use as a road deicer, and native plants to sell to local nurseries. Several members promoted the idea of establishing a public cemetery somewhere on Mepkin's property. Other non-agricultural ideas included beer production and book scanning.

The panel also considered products that have been successfully produced at other monasteries: bread, jams, caskets, candy, vestments, book binding, wine warehousing, honey products, walnuts, prunes, wine, bonsai, and cheese.

Members also suggested that the monks look at their other current sources of revenue to see if one or more of these could be expanded. These include fruitcakes, Drizzle (a syrup for desserts and meats), the Abbey Store, bus tours of the monastery and gardens, the use of Mepkin's Conference Center by business, non-profit and religious groups, the retreat program, and the annual Crèche Festival.

As the day-long meeting progressed, the panel members realized that the monks may want to consider more than one new industry.

The Advisory Panel recommended that the next step in the process be the development of a business plan to research more concretely which of the proposed industries would best serve the Mepkin's needs.