Keynote Speaker: Meryl Kennedy Farr

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The youngest of four daughters, Meryl was born and raised in the rural village of Mer Rouge, Louisiana, consisting of less than five hundred people. She declined the opportunity to attend Oxford University after completing her degree in International Affairs with a minor in Spanish at the University of Georgia. Instead, she chose to return home to assist her father and continue the family rice business. The Kennedy Family Agribusiness includes rice drying, grain storage, grain marketing, land management, real estate and rice milling.

At the age of 21, she successfully oversaw the start-up and development of Kennedy Rice Mill (aka., KRM) located in Mer Rouge, Louisiana. KRM is a state-of-the art facility and represents one of the few new rice mills built in the United States in the last quarter-century. Envisioning the need for a packaging company in North Louisiana, Meryl created KenRice Pac, LLC. As President and owner of KenRice Pac, she successfully engineered its鈥� implementation currently packaging organic and natural rice products for KRM鈥檚 KenChaux brand and other private label customers.

Meryl is the managing Co-Owner and CEO of Neighbors, LLC in West Monroe, Louisiana. Neighbors, LLC is a leading manufacturer/producer of specialized cookie dough for fundraising product solutions. Partnering with groups such as schools, churches, sports teams and civic clubs, Meryl and her team at Neighbors provide quality products, tools and customer service for successful fundraising across the United States. She leads this business as she does with all 鈥� producing high quality and health-conscious products to be enjoyed by many.

Meryl and her husband, Peyton Farr, reside in Mer Rouge with their three-year-old son, Elton Joseph Farr. They are currently expecting their second child in July.