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Members of the Centreville Youth with leader Carolyn Brackenridge stand in front on the field where the proceeds of the crops raised are donated to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Join them on October 14th for a BBQ and learn how their project combats hunger around the world.
Some fields in our township are growing food are not grown for local consumption; rather they are grown in support of faraway lands. Since 2010, members of the Centreville Presbyterian Church have been growing food for an international Christian organization whose bold objective is to create a world without hunger.
Based in Winnipeg, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank was formed in 1974 in response to a famine in Bangladesh. That year, farmers in Western Canada were experiencing bumper crops which they felt compelled to share with people who were starving. Unfortunately, government policies at the time would not allow it. The Mennonite Central Committee Canada changed that situation the following year with financial support from the federal government through the creation of a food bank that could receive grain from Canadian farmers. Today the organization is owned by 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies including Presbyterian, Anglican, Catholic, United, Mennonite, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Salvation Army. It continues to enjoy generous federal government support through a matching program where private donations are met on a four-to-one basis with funds used for food assistance in the developing world.
When the possibility of doing a project for this organization was discussed at a 2010 Centreville Presbyterian session, the late Neil Robson immediately offered five acres for the project. Since then, crops including corn, soybeans and wheat have been planted on a rotation basis. To date the local group has raised $29,000.00 with 2018 crop yet to be harvested.
The church group has been supported by local organizations providing inputs such as seed and fertilizers as well as trucking services, including Squirrel Creek Farm Services, McCamus Farm, Suurd Agri Sales, Pickseed Canada, Cavan Agri Services and Bruce Brockwell Trucking.
The first Canadian community growing project like the one on Zion Line began in 1989, and today there are more than 200 partnerships in communities across Canada. These groups of farmers and their supporters plant, tend and harvest a crop, then sell it on the Canadian market. Proceeds are directed to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and used to purchase food closer to the area of need, reducing food cost and delivery times and supporting local farmers. The needs often arise because of crisis situations like war, droughts or floods. In 2016-17, the organization helped over 900,000 people in 35 countries through member agencies in the developing world. For more information about this organization, visit www.foodgrainsbank.ca.
Join Centreville Youth in their fund raiser Barbeque at 1 pm on October 14th at Centreville Hall to learn more about this organization and lend your support to this local group. You will learn more about global hunger, and may even get ideas about how you can help feed the hungry by contributing to this local growing project, or through a project of your own, such as a benefit concert, bake sale or charity run. For more information about this event or to purchase tickets in advance, call Carolyn at 705-932-2958. KG
