Women prepare food for a Canadian Foodgrains Bank fundraiser in Leamington. (Photo by Denis Wiens)
The 10-acre corn field owned by Tiessen Acres near Leamington, Ontario, has a purpose. The proceeds of the field will be donated to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB), as part of the Sun Parlor Growing Project.
Women carefully close one of the inner layers of a PICS bag, which is designed to protect contents against insect damage. (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture photo / Creative Commons 2.0)
Humanity wastes 931 million tonnes of food each year. This figure—from the 2021 United Nations Environment Programme Food Waste Index Report—is an estimate with an admittedly wide margin of error, but it is probably the best of the wildly varying estimates of food waste in the media.
The Common Ground Growing Project near Rosenfeld, Man., harvested 12 hectares of wheat in August. (Photo by Gordon Janzen)
The coronavirus has intensified a multitude of world issues, including hunger. The United Nations’ State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report revealed a big increase in the number of people facing hunger in 2020.
Farmers in Binga, Zimbabwe, show off a strong cowpea crop from this past harvest season. They will be able to include additional protein in their diets thanks to the cowpeas, or sell the crop for additional income. (Kulima Mbobumi Training Centre photo)
A combination of favourable weather conditions and good farming practices means many farmers have had a fantastic growing season at many of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank project sites in southern Africa.
Grow Hope Niagara
Forty-one acres in Campden, Ont., are being cultivated, planted and harvested for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, with sponsorships of $400 an acre helping to plant a crop for the Grow Hope Niagara project. When the harvest is sold, farmers will donate the money to the Foodgrains Bank through Mennonite Central Committee.
For the third year, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is included as a “top-10 impact charity” by Charity Intelligence Canada for 2020. “This repeated public affirmation of our work, and the work of our members and partners, is truly welcome and celebrated,” says Andy Harrington, the Foodgrains Bank’s executive director. “We realize that people who support the Foodgrains Bank place a great deal of trust in us when they make a donation.
In Lebanon, where Foodgrains Bank member World Renew is working with Syrian refugees, personal protective equipment and hygiene kits were distributed to local church partners so they can stay safe as they distribute food to families in need. (Photo by MERATH Lebanon)
The number of people facing crisis levels of hunger in the world could double due to COVID-19, the World Food Programme (WFP) warns.
Colleen Dyck of Niverville, Man., right, visited and worked with Lucy Anyango on her farm in Busia, Kenya. ‘[Lucy] is a role model not just to her community, but to me,’ says Dyck. (Photo by Meagan Silencieux)
Colleen Dyck of Niverville, Man., right, visited and worked with Lucy Anyango on her farm in Busia, Kenya. (Photo by Meagan Silencieux)
A full house of more than 200 people gathered at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg on Oct. 15, a day before the United Nations-designated World Food Day, for the release of a new documentary by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Food for thought! There is something awe inspiring about big machines and, when used for a good cause, the ‘awesome factor’ is exponential. On Sept. 9, 2018, 14 massive combines completed a 135-acre barley harvest in two hours, just beating the rain. The ‘big field’ harvest on land donated by Pembina Pipelines East of Gibbons, Alta., was one part of the new Grow Hope North project of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta. The project encourages donations of $300 an acre to pay the input costs of farming the land.
Canadian Foodgrains Bank is inviting Canadians to join Christians around the world in a Global Day of Prayer to End Famine on June 10.
A Forced to Flee game card presents players the same options refugees face on a daily basis, with the goal of creating empathy and countering the idea of ‘illegal’ border crossings. (Photo by Amanda Thorsteinsson)
People in your country are angry at the government. They gather to protest peacefully, and the government responds by opening fire on the protesters. The occasional bomb goes off and people are fighting in the streets. Soon, it’s not safe for you to leave the house and go to work. When food is available, it’s very expensive. You have the option to pay smugglers to get you out of the country.
John Mbae visits the dairy farm of Walter and Peggy Wiebe, who are Bergthaler Mennonites living near Hague, Sask. After seeing the Wiebe’s fully-automated dairy barn, Mbae remarked, ‘The cows were milking themselves with the machines monitoring and controlling the milking.’ (Photo by Rick Block)
For John Mbae, a Canadian Foodgrains Bank conservation agriculture technical specialist based in Kenya, a visit to the Canadian Prairies was informative and inspiring.
The 2017 Bear Lake growing project in Wembley, Alta., harvested 64 hectares of barley. Once sold, the proceeds will be used by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to respond to emergency situations such as those in Syria, South Sudan and Kenya. (Canadian Foodgrains Bank photo)
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank likes to talk about its “farm”—the thousands of hectares across Canada, from P.E.I. to B.C., that are planted by community growing projects to raise funds for the work of ending global hunger.
