Spreading sunshine far and wide, Scott’s Farm owner Winston Scott, his wife Diane, and their family decided years ago that they wanted a way to give back. Sunflowers became that way.

In India, sunflowers represent fortune and good harvest, so out of an initial $20 worth of sunflower seeds, the Scotts have been able to donate $90,000, to date, to the mission work of the non-profit Helping Hands India International.

Scott, who has been a Connecticut farmer all his life, said the first time in he went to India he wanted to help by bringing his farming skills there, however, he quickly realized the more than 600 million Indian farmers are already very good at what they do.

“They are great farmers, and most are subsistence farmers making just enough to feed their families,” he explained.

The next best way to help was to fund ways to provide food and needed necessities to the people there.

Scott travels to India at least once a year to visit the orphanages, widows’ homes, Christian community centers, and now the leprosy colonies the non-profit helps.

“We supply food, and staples,” said Scott. “We have about 158 children that we support and 30 widows, old and young. In India, widows are considered unlucky and sometimes are shunned by their families, so we take in the ones that need to live in a home and help supply food and a stipend to those that need it.”

The Scott family as a whole wanted to do something that had a lasting effect and made a change for the better, not just apply a humanitarian Band Aid on the problem.

“We are so proud, we have been doing it for a while now and some of the children who were orphaned that we helped, now work for the organization as childcare providers, teachers, and book-keepers,” Scott said.

He plants the sunflowers at both the Deep River and Essex farm locations and replants every 10 days into late August, which yields fresh sunflowers well into October or until the first hard frost. The crop is in the ground now and the Scotts are hoping for a bountiful yield this year so they can donate even more funds to the non-profit.

“One hundred percent of the sunflower sale proceeds go to the non-profit. There are no administrative fees, we take care of all that so that the people who need it most get the funding that was meant for them,” Scott explained.

The sunflowers are available for purchase at Scotts’ Connecticut Valley Orchard, 274 Kelsey Hill Road, Deep River (860-526-9633) and Scotts’ Farm & Greenhouses, 81 Plains Road, Essex (860-767-7059).

In addition to sunflower money, people can also choose to sponsor a widow or orphan or simply donate to the charity to help with the funding.

“One of the reasons I travel to India each year is to make sure that the donations are going where they are meant to go,” said Scott, who works in conjunction with Pastor George Fernandes in Bangalore India.

For more information about Helping Hands India International, visit helpinghandsinternational.com/india-orphanage-2 or call Scott at 860-227-5103.