Friday, Sept. 2, was harvest day for the 2022 Crossborders Community Growing Project which yielded a bountiful return.
Coordinator Don Neufeld has been involved hands-on for the past 38 years and continues to take the lead. He acknowledged the efforts of the volunteers, as well as the contributions of the corporate community, in bringing in 17,148 bushels, 68 bu. per acre, of wheat from the 250-acre plot just east of Kola on a pleasantly warm early Autumn day. It sold for approximately $200,000.
Neufeld's own farm, Nu Wind, supplied the seed. Sixteen combines and five grain carts, supplied by area farmers and equipment dealers, completed their run in about two hours. Sixteen super-B grain haulers transported the wheat to the Viterra Inc. terminal at Fairlight, Saskatchewan.
Help came from the immediate area as well as Wawota, Sask, over an hour's drive distant.
"It (participation) is back to like it was in the 1980's when we started," Neufeld said. He was pleased with how the day proceeded and its outcome, considering Mother Nature was not always supportive this year.
"I'm very happy, considering how challenging the spring was," he said via telephone on Tuesday. The field was not planted until mid-May, and about 13 to 15 acres could not be seeded due to excess water on the land resulting from the wet spring.
Community enthusiasm
About 150 people, including a number of school-aged children, joined in the traditional community picnic lunch before the equipment fired up, enjoying hot dogs and pork on a bun. Several businesses pitched in to provide, and help prepare and serve the food. For Neufeld, it's important that the younger set get to see first-hand where their food comes from, and gain an appreciation for efforts to help those less fortunate.
"We are very privileged to live where we do, and we want to be able to share our passion for agriculture.” he said.
The Crossborders Growing Project, one of 32 active across the province, raises funds in support of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a partnership of 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies. The proceeds from each crop allow the Bank to work with local organizations in impoverished and developing countries to alleviate immediate food insecurity and work to find long-term solutions to famine.
Gordon Janzen, the Regional Coordinator for Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario, was on hand at the harvest.
"I think it's turning out to be wonderful," he said. "There are a couple of projects that weren't able to actually get seeded… because it was just too wet. I'm thinking of Gladstone and the Rosenort area. A couple of projects weren't able to find land, so that also is a consideration. Factors change, but we've got a strong core of projects that continue year after year, and this is one of them. It's a community effort and just a great spirit here.”
Janzen noted that globally, the need is ever-present.
"It's hard to talk about that because we always are raising awareness about hunger, but in the last two years during the pandemic we feared that the number of hungry people would increase and that fear has been borne out," he said.
The increase in food insecurity, which affects around 800 million people world-wide, can be attributed to a number of factors, such as conflicts in the Ukraine and northern Ethiopia, as well as climate conditions.
"Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have experienced droughts for five years running. "They have often had droughts but not year after year like it is now. Those are real concerns, and the needs are high. It's very sobering, but we can do something about it. We can respond to it and this is one way that we can."
Janzen said the federal government matches the dollars raised four to one, resulting in even more funds to benefit the Foodgrains Bank's humanitarian efforts.
“All donations are sold domestically and the additional funds from the Canadian government are added when the project is planned abroad and the money goes out. It's capped at $25 million per year.”
Janzen noted that growing projects raise half of all donations made to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in a given year.
"Our member agencies have a lot of needs they are trying to respond to, so your support makes a big difference," he concluded.
