Mental health programs offered
Applications are now being accepted for the fifth year of Do More Agriculture’s Community Fund.
Presented with Farm Credit Canada, the fund offers free mental health education to rural communities in Canada. The goal is to empower them with the necessary tools to support themselves and others.
Applications are open until Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. CST.
This year’s initiative offers a broader selection of workshops, including a virtual peer-to-peer grief support group.
Another addition is the SafeTalk workshop, designed to equip individuals with the knowledge and ability to extend effective help to someone considering suicide, connecting them to the necessary support.
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The program’s specialized AgCulture courses will continue to provide mental health professionals with an in-depth understanding of the specific challenges unique to the agricultural sector.
Applicants can be an individual, business or association.
Feds announce food security funding
The federal government recently announced $9.98 million in food security funding through the fifth phase of its Local Food Infrastructure Fund.
This funding will support up to 192 new community-led projects across the country through investments in equipment and infrastructure needs to help improve the accessibility of nutritious, local food.
LFIF is a key component of the Food Policy for Canada. Since it launched in August 2019, the fund has committed $64.8 million to support more than 1,100 projects to improve food security across Canada, including community gardens and kitchens, refrigerated trucks and storage units for donated food, and greenhouses in remote and northern communities.
Innovation centre receives major donation
The planned Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in Manitoba recently received a $10 million donation from an anonymous philanthropist.
The donation is for the marquee project at the newly minted Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment at Assiniboine Community College.
The centre is intended to bring together collaborative learning spaces, applied research labs, multipurpose spaces and amenities that will serve both industry and the college community.
Lethbridge College irrigation research funded
Lethbridge College will receive $1 million in infrastructure funding from the provincial government to expand the capacity of its applied research in irrigation science.
The college is one of four post-secondary institutions in the province receiving a portion of $3.6 million from Alberta’s Research Capacity Program College Fund.
The provincial grant is in addition to $1 million in federal funding the college received last year from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
The combined $2 million from the provincial and federal governments will support smart irrigation infrastructure needs for the Mueller Irrigation Research Group at the Lethbridge College research farm.
