HEPBURN, Sask. – Crawling out of his tent on frosty mornings was counterbalanced by warm enthusiasm from students as Paul Lepage completed his Drive Away Hunger tour last week.
Lepage drove a new 100 horsepower McCormick tractor for 300 kilometres throughout central Saskatchewan earlier this month, pulling a trailer to collect donations for the province’s food banks.
The account manager for Farm Credit Canada started Oct. 17 in North Battleford, Sask., the day after world food day, and ended Oct. 21 in Saskatoon.
As well as providing support for the tour, FCC will donate $25,000 to the Canadian Association of Food Banks.
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Lepage, who collected the cash or weight equivalent of 25,095 kilograms of food on his five-day tour, said hunger isn’t just a problem in cities.
“Many rural communities and families use the services offered by a food bank,” he said. “This is a way for me and rural Canadians to give back to our neighbours, friends and customers.”
Lepage said the tour came about after he heard of a similar tractor drive done last year by the FCC office in Listowel, Ont. Last year he was part of a corporate pizza lunch in an inner city school in Saskatoon.
“I wanted to do something,” said Lepage, so this year when the Saskatoon office suggested a tour, he stepped up.
“It just started from the heart. …I work with the people who feed the world, farmers.”
Part of Lepage’s tour goal was to raise awareness of hunger, which he did by speaking at schools and community events.
Lepage said driving wasn’t a problem because in his youth he drove tractors for farmers in the Batoche, Sask., area where his father farmed.
The tour is not unique to this area of Saskatchewan. An Anglican bishop did a similar tractor drive through west-central Saskatchewan this year to mark the province’s centennial.
