ACADIA VALLEY, Alta. – When helping the world’s hungry, it’s better to send food than write a cheque.
That’s the attitude of many of those involved with the Graindale Heritage Project harvest, a local event for the benefit of the world’s hungry, administered nationally by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
“Grain is what you’ve got to send to these people, not money, so I think that’s why we stress doing it this way,” said Gary Kroker, location manager of the Pioneer Grain elevator in Oyen, Alta., where the 150 tonnes of harvested grain were delivered Sept. 2.
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“Sending money, I don’t think, goes to the right people … I’m hoping grain gets to people who really need it.”
Volunteer Viola Schmidt said she and other harvest participants prefer donating their time, hands and equipment over sending money.
“It’s much more satisfying to get involved and see (the donation) first hand.”
Kroker said the relevance of projects like this was driven home last year when people from Kenya visited during the Graindale harvest.
“They came and rode in the combines and that’s when it really hit me that these people actually really appreciate what we did,” he said.
According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, undernourishment in developing countries has decreased almost 30 percent since 1980, but 800 million people are still malnourished.
Mary Thompson, the foodgrains bank’s resource co-ordinator for Alberta and British Columbia, said her organization has made a significant difference to the lives of hungry people, providing them with more than 900,000 tonnes of food. In the last fiscal year, the food grain bank delivered 22,000 tonnes of food and seeds to 3.7 million people in 18 countries, totalling a little more than $7 million. Every tonne of grain donated to the food grains bank provides enough food for 83 people for a month, a report from the organization said.
Donations to the foodgrains bank are received in various forms, including cash, grain, oilseeds and pulse crops and are either made through community growing projects or by individual farmers when they unload their commodities at an elevator. More than 5,700 tonnes of grain were donated individually last year.
Livestock producers are also active, donating proceeds from cattle sales.
One of the foodgrains bank’s recent projects was a shipment of yellow split peas to Sudan for people who were displaced by a conflict in Darfur in western Sudan. A second food shipment of wheat is expected to go soon.
Grain collected by the food grains bank is distributed overseas based on need, with more than 95 percent of every bushel shipped getting to where it is needed.
“We get tonne-for-tonne credit when they haul it into the elevator, (and) when we fill a ship in Vancouver or Montreal we pull those credits back at the port, so therefore there is no money wasted in hauling it with trucks.”
There were 230 food grains bank growing projects in Canada last year and Thompson said this year there are nearly 40 taking place in Alberta, ranging in size from 12 to 280 acres.
