In 1992, farmers in the Midwest were asked to donate grain to be shipped to orphanages in the country of Latvia. At first, Orphan Grain Train co-founder Rev. Ray Wilke imagined that donated grain could be added carload by carload to a train starting in the Dakotas and going southward to the Gulf of Mexico. At the Gulf, the donated grain would be loaded on a ship and sent to Latvia, where it would go mainly to orphanages. This plan became known as “The Orphan Grain Train.”

Such a train was never used, however, because the rail system doesn't work that way. Instead, grain, canned food, clothing, and other supplies are loaded on shipping containers and then loaded on trains, one container at a time. The trains take the containers to ports, where they are loaded on ships and transported to their intended destinations. Thus, Orphan Grain Train sends food—bags of grain when necessary—in 40-foot-long shipping containers, which are sent across America on trains, loaded on ships, and sent to orphans and other needy people in distant lands.

As of December 2005, Orphan Grain Train has sent more than 1,000 semi-truck sized shipping containers with full loads valued at $20,000 - $50,000 each to Latvia, Russia, Ethiopia, Liberia, India, and two dozen other countries.