The Rural Voice, 1995-12, Page 24Helping others brings
togetherness for community
Growing projects for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank
bring people together here, while helping needy
people rebuild their lives
By Keith Roulston
Jim Papple, Ontario Co-ordinator for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, studies a
map of the 65 projects undertaken in Ontario this year.
Farmers and rural people are
rediscovering the old rural
tradition of working together in
their efforts to help less fortunate
people around the world.
The number of projects where
communities get together to grow
grain for foreign aid has boomed,
says Jim Papple of Seaforth, Ontario
co-ordinator for the Canadian
Foodgrains Bank, an organization set
up by various Christian
denominations to put Canada's
bounty to use in feeding starving
people around the world.
"It was an exceptional year for the
Foodgrains Bank," Papple said
recently. "Things just seemed to be
happening all the time."
The crop growing projects
20 THE RURAL VOICE
continue to blossom across the
province. From 35 growing projects
last year support for the Foodgrains
program exploded to 65 this year. A
group of farmers, often supported by
urban residents, will get the use of a
piece of land and plant it and tend it,
then harvest the crop to be sent to
people in need somewhere in the
world.
There's a community feeling
involved, Papple says. "People seem
to be hungry for that feeling." This
year, for instance, when it came
harvest time at the the Seaforth
Foodgrains Bank project, even
though the iffy weather might have
caused farmers to want to look after
their own wheat crop first, 14
combines arrived and finished the
harvest in two hours. They then took
time for coffee, a doughnut and a
visit, before heading back to their
own fields.
For farmers, it's also an easier
way to make a significant
contribution to a world problem than
a donation of money. "It's a lot easier
to go out with your combine and do
$500 worth of work than to give $50
cash," Papple says.
"These groups are really
pleasantly surprised at the response
they get," Papple says.
For Papple, who started with the
Foodgrains Bank as a volunteer
before taking on the staff job of
Ontario co-ordinator, there's pleasure
in seeing how each project takes on a
different twist to fit the needs or
talents of the groups involved. The
projects are very much driven by the
grassroots, he says. He may offer
advice on how to get started but each
group then adapts the idea for its own
project.
This year a Fullarton group that
had formerly raised about $3,000 in
cash to support the bank, put the
money into supplies for a growing
project and ended up with $9,300 to
give. A Uniondale group planned a
10 -acre project and raised $2,000 to
pay for input costs. But the inputs
were all donated so the group earned
$5,000 from thegrain plus the $2,000
it had raised in cash.
LetterBreen United Church near
Mount Forest has grown 11
acres of oats and canola for
several years, working in partnership
with Westdale United Church in
Hamilton which raises money to
cover the costs of crop inputs. This
year the group decided to do
something different. It grew hull -less
oats and when the crop was
harvested, took it to Hilton
Wholegrain Millers at Staffa and had
it made into oatmeal. The oats were
then sold in the two congregations to
raise even more money for the
Foodgrains Bank. The project also
had an educational side, says Carol
Liebold, project co-ordinator. "Part
of it was to get the Westdale people
more involved. But it was also to
grow the food and to eat the food we
were growing, to make that
connection."
A Niagara -area church collects a
mile of pennies. A Guelph church