Chris Lowrey
SHAWVILLE June 18, 2018
With hunger affecting hundreds of millions of people across the globe, a group of local farmers and businesses have teamed up to do their part in the fight.
Local farmer Ralph Lang has donated 10 acres of land to grow soft red winter wheat with the proceeds going to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB).
The CFB is an organization made up of 15 churches and Christian organizations whose main goal is to combat worldwide hunger.
The CFB has 244 growing projects from coast to coast, ranging in size from 250 acres to a few rows of potatoes.
Lang’s project marks the first growing project in Quebec in quite some time. For instance, in Ontario there are 116 growing projects.
This year Lang will grow wheat, next year the plan is to grow corn and then beans the following year.
Lang will harvest the crop and the Union des Producteurs Agricole (UPA) will sell the crop and donate the proceeds to the CFB.
The local project was helped along by M&R Feeds in Shawville and DuPont Pioneer who donated the seeds.
M&R Feeds representative Brett Coughlin also said that his company will provide the spray necessary for the crop.
Lang said he wanted to get involved with the project to use his farming expertise to make a difference in the world.
“We’re lucky to live in a country like Canada,” Lang said in a press release. “Giving back is part of who we are.”
The CFB provided over $37 million of assistance in 34 countries in 2017-18.
The organization gets a yearly grant of up to $25 million depending on the funds raised through growing projects and donations. The federal government matches the funds raised by the CFB by a margin of four to one.
In the past, the organization donated the food directly to the areas of need, but the shipping costs and the types of food that were donated made the process more expensive and less culturally appropriate.
As a result, in 2008 the CFB decided it would be more effective for member groups – like the UPA – to sell the crops and use the money raised to fight hunger.
On the ground level in places of need, each member group is in contact with the locals and are able to suggest the best ways to target food insecurity.
It’s a multi-pronged effort by the CFB to help alleviate worldwide hunger. The group focuses on a humanitarian response by providing emergency food and nutritional support to those in need. The CFB also uses the expertise of Canadian farmers to educate their counterparts in developing nations. There is also an effort to shine a spotlight on policies in developing countries that can help alleviate hunger.
