Retired farming couple uses centrepieces to fight hunger

Responding to God’s call set out in the Bible

April 18, 2016 | Web First
Amanda Thorsteinsson | Canadian Foodgrains Bank

When Henry and Hilda Schulz of Sanford, Man., were still farming, one of the crops they grew was barley.

As friends at their church—Sargent Avenue Mennonite in Winnipeg—learned this, they asked them for barley seed to make Easter centrepieces, as a way to bring a little spring and new life into their homes.

Hilda initially gave the barley away. But since Henry was involved in a Canadian Foodgrains Bank growing project in nearby Domain, she realized it might make an excellent fundraiser for the Foodgrains Bank.

At first, she thought it would be only a small fundraiser, selling half-a-cup of barley seed for a dollar. “I thought that maybe I’d get a hundred dollars,” says Hilda.

Instead, she got more than $900 that first year.

“It blew me away,” she says, citing the generosity of her fellow church members. Besides buying the barley, people donated additional funds to the Foodgrains Bank.

That was 19 years ago, and she has been selling barley for Easter centrepieces ever since.

These days, Henry and Hilda don’t farm any more. Instead, they get the barley from a seed plant, sell it, and donate the proceeds to the Foodgrains Bank. Last year was their most successful year; they raised $2,372.

But that’s not all they do. Throughout the year, Hilda gets flax from a local seed cleaning plant, and sells it for $10 an ice cream pail, a bargain compared to the price in many grocery stores. The proceeds are then donated to the Foodgrains Bank.

“A lot of people are on a flax health craze,” she says, adding that the plant often donates the flax. “[People] use it for baking, cooking, or whatever else they want.”

For the Schulzes, supporting the work of ending global hunger is a way of responding to God’s call set out in the Bible. “Christ calls us to feed the hungry and clothe the poor,” she says. “We all have to do what we can, and this is our small part.”

That call is also a very personal one for Hilda. “My parents left on the last train out of Russia in 1929,” she says, adding that they eventually made their way to Manitoba. “But my maternal grandparents were not so fortunate. They were not able to leave Russia. They were evicted from their village and had a very hard life after that. Some of my uncles were exiled to Siberia, where they died, likely of starvation.” 

She says her involvement with the Foodgrains Bank is “a way of saying ‘thank you’ that I have food in my cupboards.”

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