Saskatchewan producers who want to donate some crop to combat local food insecurity can now be sure their donations match what food banks need.
Regina-based AGT Food and Ingredients recently announced the AGT Food Bank Crop Exchange Program will convert donated crop into a credit that food banks can use to buy food from the company’s retail brands.
Producers will get a tax receipt at fair market value.
Chief executive officer Murad Al-Katib said generous producers often want to help but donating bulk crops can be impractical for food banks.
“While we’re grateful when a producer wants to donate 10 tonnes of yellow peas, we may, as the food bank, not need at that particular point, 10 tonnes of yellow peas,” he said during the announcement at the Regina Food Bank. “We can now take that 10 tonnes of yellow peas and create for the food banks the food that the families need right now to have the most impact in their communities.”
Farmers who want to participate commit to an amount and “round down” their deliveries to one of the company’s 21 facilities. For example, if the delivery is 40 tonnes and they choose to donate one tonne, they get the receipt for that one tonne and payment for the 39 tonnes. It could even be a portion of a tonne, said Al-Katib.
The food bank credits will be available for products such as rice, pasta, pulses and staples such as Tamam canned pulses and Arbella Pasta.
Al-Katib said he expects more local packaging as the program grows.
“Lentil and oat groat soup mixes are going to be produced and are going to be a food bank staple,” he said. “We’ll do some of that locally. What we can’t do locally we’ll try to do at scale.”
Both AGT and Food Banks of Canada have large logistical networks that the program will use to make sure the maximum amount goes into food rather than administration and logistics, he said.
Farmers can designate their donations for their local regions, if they wish.
Donations this year are eligible to be matched under Farm Credit Canada’s Drive Away Hunger program, up to a maximum of $1 million. FCC’s program is celebrating its 20th year of providing food to food banks.
“Last year alone Drive Away Hunger provided 40 million meals to food security agencies,” she said. “We understand the need for food security. It’s greater than ever and the strength of FCC support must match that demand.
“This is the pride and joy of every staff member at Farm Credit Canada.”
The Regina Food Bank moves about 15,000 pounds of food each day.
Board chair Shauna Flaman said 43 percent of food bank users are children and one in eight households in the province is food insecure.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister David Marit said AGT’s exchange program will resonate with farmers who are historically generous and provide healthy nutritious food.
There are 36 food banks in Saskatchewan. Regina and Saskatoon will act as hubs to ship the food throughout the province.
Al-Katib said AGT has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to United Nations refugee agencies, he said, but had to do something closer to home.
“The idea here was to take the power of the farm and convert it into what is needed at food banks,” he said.
“This will be, in my mind, a multimillion-dollar program that we think will survive, like Drive Away Hunger, for 20 years.”
AGT plans to roll out the program in Alberta and Manitoba as well, and perhaps take it national.
