Another year completed for Acres of Hope project

Details

Published on Wednesday, December 9, 2015

By Ron Krahn

Chairperson

Acres of Hope is a local growing project that raises money for Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB).  Local farmers and businesses grow crops on donated or rented land with as many donated crop inputs (seed, fertilizer, chemical) as possible to raise money to help end world hunger. Our project has been in existence since 1998 and is run by a committee of local farmers and volunteers. For the past 17 years we have had a field in the Rivers area and another field southwest of Oak River. 2015 was the first year without a field close to Rivers, as we were not able to find a parcel of land to farm for the project.  

The 60-acre Oak River field was seeded to wheat in late May and was harvested on Sept. 23 with a crew of three combines, one grain cart and two semis from local farmers, colony and machinery dealer. We were able to sell 55.9 tonnes (2,054 bushels) of spring wheat to the James Richardson International (JRI) elevator at Kemnay, which raised $13,081.81. Along with some cash donations from people in the area, we have been able to send more than $20,000 to CFGB for the 2015 year. Since Acres of Hope started, we have been able to send more than half a million dollars to CFGB, which is then matched 4:1 by the Canadian government. We are grateful for the money our local project has been able to raise to help end hunger in many parts of the world such as Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Jordan, India, Bangladesh and so many others.

We are thankful for the support of our local community for this project. Many cash, equipment, land and crop input donations have come from the local community. If anyone knows of or has some land they would like to rent or donate to our project for 2016, we would love to hear about it! Please contact one of the following committee members if you would like to be involved: Ron Krahn, Gord McFadden, Gerald Lepp, Darran Paddock, Leonard Lepp or Frank Blank.