Meet Melissa Clark

Melissa and her husband Rick mainly farm wheat with Rick’s grandparents on the family farm. Wheat may be one of their main sources of income, but it contains gluten, the one thing Melissa can’t have.

After noticing sensitivity to gluten in high school and during college, Melissa decided to get tested for celiac disease. The blood tests came back negative, which happens often. But since celiac runs in Melissa’s family, doctors were 90 percent sure it was hereditary celiac disease. Melissa now eats a gluten-free diet and feels better physically, but wishes she could eat wheat like she used to.

While Melissa doesn’t agree with today’s gluten-free fad where people who aren’t gluten-intolerant eat gluten-free, she is thankful for the variety of gluten-free food choices on the market because of it. These days, she can go to town and get a gluten-free pizza and a variety of other products that might otherwise contain gluten.

During the school year, Melissa works as a para educator for special education students at an elementary school in McPherson, Kansas. After school lets out for the summer, she’s free to help with wheat harvest. She enjoys driving the truck back and forth to the field, running errands, bringing midday snacks and coffee, riding in the tractor or combine with Rick and spending time at the farmhouse with Rick’s grandma.