It was a picture-perfect day to bring in the harvest for the Central Alberta Foodgrains Growing Project east of Lacombe.
The 120 acres of canola was combined by a team of volunteers on Oct. 5. All crop sale proceeds will now be forwarded to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to aid in the fight against hunger internationally, officials say.
For 29 years, the local growing project has grown a crop in some part of Lacombe County in partnership with the Winnipeg-based Foodgrains Bank. The organization works to bring relief where there are global emergencies with hunger, but they also are involved in long-term development projects in impoverished nations as well.
There are several similar growing projects around Central Alberta.
According to the CFB website, it’s estimated that up to 783 million people are facing hunger worldwide and do not have food security, meaning they do not have regular access to enough nutritious food to live healthy and active lives.
Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 15 church and church-based agencies working together to end global hunger. Members represent nearly 30 Christian denominations made up of over 12,000 individual congregations across Canada, according to the website.
"I've always had an interest in this," said local committee member Doug Maas.
"One of the reasons is that I have never had to worry, not for one day in my life, whether I'm going to eat or not. I can't imagine what it would be like to not know if you are going to eat on a given day, or the day after that, or the day after that.
"This is a great thing to do, but I also take it as a responsibility," he said. "Another thing that inspires me is the community we are building here. We have agri-businesses involved, we've got farmers, and we've got the general public. We are building community here, and creating connections as we help other communities throughout the world," he explained, adding there just over 30 growing projects across Alberta.
Maas has been involved with the project for 26 years.
Don Clayton, a Calgary-based CFB volunteer ambassador, was also at the harvest event.
"We have at least 15 countries that we are active in," he said, adding lin the last fiscal year, the CFB served just under one million people. He said the number of hungry people in the world is about 20 times the population of Canada. "It's unbelievable that it's so severe. We think, how can we do more? We have to reach out to more people," he said.
"To me, this is God's love in action. It's people acting out there faith, which, to me, is a very exciting thing," he said. "The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is in the top 10 of ethical charities as far as how little money is used for administration as well," he added. "It's been in the top 10 for many years."
For Clayton, it's just exciting to see firsthand several harvests around the province take place.
"To have about 100 people here today is amazing, too."
For more information, follow the Central Alberta Foodgrains Growing Project on Facebook, or visit www.foodgrainsbank.ca.
