By Leeann Minogue
When Canadians hear about people suffering from hunger, they want to help. Through the federal government, Canadians support many international and local programs, like the United Nations’ World Food Program, Nutrition International, and UNICEF. And many Canadians donate directly to communities in need where they have a close connection.
Stories about people going without food resonate especially with farmers, who look for ways to use their own production to help. Associations that represent farmers who produce eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, dairy products, and other food have long-standing relationships with food banks across the country, and surplus production is regularly donated to people in need. Farmers who grow grains, pulse crops and oilseeds have found another way to use their crops to help others.
In the early 1980s, prairie grain farmers lobbied the federal government for help moving their excess grain to parts of the world experiencing famine. Volunteers bagged wheat to ship overseas and the federal government contributed three times the value of every donated bushel. In 1983, five Christian relief and development associations came together to form the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to make sure this work would continue.
Today, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank has grown to 15 member agencies. In 2020-21, the Foodgrains Bank helped 989,000 people in 33 countries at a cost of $49 million. Roughly half of this funding came from donations from Canadians across the country; the federal government matches donations of up to $25 million annually for humanitarian food assistance programs.
Rick Block and his wife Jacquie are Saskatchewan’s Canadian Foodgrains Bank representatives. They share the role and often take their two children along when they travel Saskatchewan for fundraising and education events. Rick Block says their work is very rewarding. “Day-to-day, I see Canadians intentionally keeping themselves aware of the needs of others in the world and becoming inspired by local and international stories that demonstrate our shared humanity and the way we look out for one another.”
The Foodgrains Bank doesn’t hide its tagline: “a Christian response to hunger,” but they help people of all faiths, and many non-Christians donate and participate in events. “It’s not necessarily about church,” Block says. “What we hold in common is that we all want to help care for those that are impacted by hunger and poverty.”
How it Works
The Foodgrains Bank began by shipping Canadian grain overseas but, since 2008, its work is not tied to moving actual grain. Donated grain is sold to regular commercial buyers and the Foodgrains Bank uses the revenues. Many non-farmers (including groups such as businesses, churches and service clubs) donate cash. “The most effective response is to work with local partners on the ground, procuring food as close to the region in need as possible,” Block says.
There are many benefits to buying food locally and giving away Canadian wheat for free can lower the prices for food grown by local farmers in a devastated region. Further, not all people in need of help are used to eating the types of grains we grow here. But despite knowing that their particular wheat won’t likely be eaten by the people they want to help, many farmers still prefer to donate grain, directing their sales proceeds straight to the Foodgrains Bank when they drop grain off at the terminal. “Some are absolutely committed to doing it that way,” Block says. “There is a tangible quality to donating food from the land they farm.”
Many people the Foodgrains Bank helps are farmers themselves. “Approximately 758 million people worldwide experience significant or severe food insecurity, and 70 percent of those are farmers,” Block says. These are ‘smallholder farmers’, feeding their families with a small land base of one to two acres. Between one harvest and the next, Block says, some of these farm families “might go from two meals a day down to one meal a day.”
Canadian farmers have many advantages that smallholder farmers in developing countries don’t have. Extension agronomists, crop insurance, relatively low interest rates, and access to loans are benefits that smallholder farmers can’t take for granted. “These farmers take on high levels of risk, with very few risk management tools,” Block says. “Injuries, accidents, sickness, or crop failure can have drastic consequences.”
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank helps people in two ways. They provide short-term emergency assistance when it’s needed due to emergencies like wars, natural disasters, or extreme drought. They also provide long-term assistance, helping communities develop secure food supplies. Examples of this include conservation agriculture training, facilitating nutrition programs for mothers, and promoting savings and loans programs, where, as Block explains, “community members come together and essentially form their own credit union.” Small pilot projects in conservation agriculture that began 10 years ago now reach 70,000 East African farmers. “We’re not only responding to emergencies,” Block says, “we’re helping to build climate-resilient food systems.”
Responding to the need
Because the Foodgrains Bank is a grassroots organization at heart, gathering to learn and raise funds is still key to its operations. More than 200 growing projects and community events took place across Canada in 2022. For instance, every year in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, volunteers grow a crop on 280 acres of donated land through their Harvest of Hope Growing Project. With inputs like fuel, seed, and crop protection products donated by local retailers and farm work done by volunteers bringing their own machinery, all the crop proceeds are donated to the Foodgrains Bank. Farmers find these types of projects especially rewarding, Block says. “Farmers understand the risk and reward of growing food and many are inspired by connecting to a bigger picture of helping others.”
Joining community events is a good way to learn more about the Foodgrains Bank. For some supporters, participating in an international learning tour can be transformative. On a recent learning tour to Rwanda, Block took part in a group meal hosted by a widowed Rwandan mother. A local agronomist said, “Take note. She doesn’t have a lot, but she has the confidence that she can sacrifice this amount of food.” Seeing how the work of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank has increased food security in this East African country left Block and the other participants more committed than ever to their work. “It reminded us of the blessings we have here.”
Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s Response to War In Ukraine
Food is essential for Ukrainians that have had to leave the country as refugees and for those that have remained in Ukraine. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is responding to this crisis.
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a member of the Humanitarian Coalition, along with groups such as Oxfam, CARE, and WorldVision. Through this partnership of agencies, the federal government can streamline its response in coordination with Canadian aid organizations, and provide more effective communication back to the Canadian public.
Some of the 15 relief and development agencies that are members of the Foodgrains Bank have had a presence in Ukraine before the beginning of the war. These agencies continue to help Ukrainians, now primarily by helping refugees at the country’s borders. More information: https://foodgrainsbank.ca/donate/.
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