Sarnia Area Farmers Grow for CFGB
A group of farmers from Lambton County, Ont., are helping to fight world hunger through the Bluewater Growing Project, one of about 260 growing projects across Canada producing crops to be sold to raise money for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) and to create awareness in their own communities about global hunger.
The Foodgrains Bank, based in Winnipeg, Man., partners with 15 churches or church-based agencies, including World Renew, to provide emergency food assistance, agriculture training, other ag support (e.g., seeds, livestock, or tools), and nutrition projects to people in places of need. Last year they were able to help over 900,000 people in 35 countries, aided by over $25 million in funding from the Canadian government, which matches their efforts up to 4:1.
One way that the Foodgrains Bank raises its support is through community growing projects such as the one in Lambton County. The projects bring farmers, retired farmers, businesses, and individuals together to farm a plot of land. Each of these community members provides what they are able. They might donate the use of their land, tractors, combines, and other equipment; fuel, seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs; and time to plant, tend, and harvest the crop -- or give funds to support the rent or purchase of the needed elements.
The group works together to plant, cultivate, and harvest their crop. Once the field is harvested, the group sells the crop on the Canadian market, and the funds are donated to the Foodgrains Bank. From there, the funds are used for such projects as the emergency food assistance World Renew is providing to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Jack Koetsier, a member of Wyoming (Ont.) CRC, is one of the five or six local growers who have volunteered to oversee the Bluewater Growing Project. (“Bluewater” is a common nickname for the Lake Huron coastal region of southern Ont.)
One purpose of the project, Koetsier said, is to develop a local awareness of hunger, and to raise money to help fight it.
“It’s to make people aware of what we can do in this country to help those in other parts of the world,” he explained. “As farmers, we’ve been blessed with a country where we can run a business, and it’s easier to share sometimes in using our resources than it is to actually give cash,” but both, he said, are ultimately used “to buy food in those countries to help those people out.”
Projects like these contribute about half of the total donations received by the Foodgrains Bank.
Koetsier noted that purchasing the food in the countries where the Foodgrains Bank works, rather than shipping Canadian grain to them, helps both the people in need of food and the local farmers and economy of those countries.
Harry Joosse of Redeemer CRC in Sarnia, Ont., has been involved with the Bluewater Growing Project for over 30 years, and he enjoys seeing the community come together to support the effort. He donated use of a 36-acre field this year, which was harvested at the end of November.
“People from different churches are involved – Presbyterian, Baptist, United . . .” said Joosse. Some take up collections to help fund the project, and members of the group of volunteers overseeing the project come from a variety of churches or no church. “That’s what makes it interesting, that we as a community have this thing going.”
There are several ways that individuals and churches can help.
“Get involved,” said Koetsier. “Just because you’re not a farmer doesn’t mean you can’t be involved. You can certainly provide funds to help purchase inputs for these crops . . . or if you’re a farmer, you can donate a portion of your own crop.”
Koetsier also pointed to partnerships between urban congregations and rural growing projects, donations of land or funds to rent land for crops, and prayer. “What else can people do? Above everything else, obviously, pray for success [in the outcome of these community growing projects].”
