Volunteers brought out their millions of dollars worth of equipment on Wednesday to get harvest done.

It’s a dedicated volunteerism project that has been going on now for decades between Bonnyville and Fort Kent.

Local farmers come together to harvest 120 acres of rented land, to send the grains to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which will match the value of the crops up to four times and help support hungry populations around the world.

This area west of Fort Kent is called the Northeast Growing Project.

“Over the years, we’ve always had this field. We do this project every year, and with our 27th year, we’ve sent in $785,000 to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank already,” said chair Terry Shenher. 

“A lot of it goes over to some third world countries that are starving, and they also do water wells over there. We also do a little bit of help here in our own community for the Knights of Columbus at Christmas time with the food hampers for the people that are less fortunate.” 

With some rain starting and stopping at around 11:00AM on Wednesday, the provided lunch was delayed so they could do as much as they could, with foodtruck Geneos Creative Cooking also on site.

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Background:

There is a local board of a dozen members that meet to organize seedings in the spring, then in the summertime for the harvest.

Some younger farmers have joined the cause too, and they hope to continue that trend.

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a humanitarian cause that responds to hunger challenges around the world. From April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, 123 projects were supported with over $68 million, helping just under a million people.

“I just want to thank all the volunteers for showing up every year, and I want to thank the committee for all their help that they put in to keep this going. If anybody wants to join the committee, they’re welcome to get ahold of me. We are looking for volunteers continually, and sooner or later, some of us older fellows want to pass the torch to the next generation so it can keep going.” 

The timelines meet with World Hunger Day on October 16.

You can contact Shenher at 780-573-5916 or read more information on https://foodgrainsbank.ca/