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Canadian Foodgrains Bank working to end Global Hunger
Canadian Foodgrains Bank working to end Global Hunger
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
Working together to end global hunger is the mission of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The Christian based non-profit organization, along with its members, supporters and project partners have been devoted to that mission.
According to Canadian Foodgrains Bank 2024 annual report, “In 2023-24, individual Canadians, community groups, growing projects, businesses and churches helped raise $18.9 million; helping us touch the lives of 974,683 people in 35 countries.
Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 15 church and church based agencies, representing 30 Christian denominations comprised of more than 12,000 individual congregations across Canada. One of the members is the Mennonite Central Committee. Abe Janzen, said he worked for a long time with that committee before taking on the position of Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) regional representative for Alberta.
Janzen was on hand for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank harvest which took place near the Town of Vegreville on October 15. It is one of over 200 growing projects across Canada, and represents approximately half of the donations received by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Community growing projects generally involve farmers, fuel dealers, equipment dealers, local small businesses, grain elevator staff and church congregations. It is one of the ways Janzen connects and supports with supporters of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. “That means visiting and calling people who are donors, churches who are interested, and farmers and ag-business people who create ‘growing projects’ like the one you visited yesterday. It’s really a grass-roots based organization. The amount of work that is done, literally on the ground, is amazing.”
Local Growing Project Coordinator Darren Achtymichuk reported that, “A group of approximately 20 volunteers and project supporters met for lunch at the field. Shortly after lunch, four combines (provided by Webb's Machinery, Rocky Mountain Equipment, Tingley's Harvest Center, and Durlowe Farms) set to work, harvesting 115 acres of standing canola. The machines wrapped up the field just after 4 pm, marking the end of another successful growing season for the project.
The field produced 6,143 bushels of canola (a yield of 53 bushels/acre). Considering the heat and dryness in July and August, we were happy with how it turned out. Total proceeds from the crop were $80,018.78. We expect that after covering expenses, over $60,000 from the Vegreville growing project will be contributed to the Canadian Food Grains Bank’s humanitarian efforts around the world.”
It was the first time contributor Double Bumps Seed, Jeannette and Dwayne Andrashewski have been involved with the project. They said the project aligns with their values and is a good way to help end world hunger as well as connect with contributors and community members.
Achtymichuk pointed out that since its inception in 2001, the Vegreville growing project has raised over $900,000.
Janzen noted that about 70 percent of all revenues go to emergency food aid. Last year we became involved in about 35 countries. Thirty percent goes to food security, which means education, training, nutrition education, and working with farmers to grow more and healthier food for their families, and hopefully for their markets.
Food Aid these days goes to Gaza (it’s actually almost impossible to get anything into Gaza), Lebanon, Syria (that war began in 2011 and has not ended. Half of that population has been displaced … 14M people), Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Colombia/Venezuela … and in every case it’s because of violence and war. The food is purchased nearby. We don’t ship food from here because we want to enable local and nearby economies. Grain from Canadian farms is turned to cash and the cash is used where the food can be purchased, as close to the need as possible.
Wherever we work, it is done through one or more of the 15 members. They manage the projects and CFGB supports, evaluates, resources, monitors. Each of the 15 members works through partner organizations who are usually long-term local NGOs. We are very careful about partnerships … and we do a lot of training on the ground … all the time.
The Canadian Government, last year, gave CFGB an extra $33M to begin a three-year soil reclamation project in five countries in Eastern Africa. Soil that has been eroded over years of neglect can be turned back into farmland. That is one example. We also do a lot of work in Conservation Ag, which is really just teaching farmers about crop rotation, moisture preservation (mulch), and zero tillage. Production, in nearly every situation goes up dramatically on small plots where these three elements are put into practise.”
Whether it’s providing emergency food in times of crisis, helping people improve their access to food in the longer term or engaging Canadians and governments toward meaningful change, CFGB is continuing to make meaningful change throughout the world.
