Volunteers and supporters of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank gathered Sunday night in Boissevain for an information and fund raising event.

The Boissevain-Morton-Whitewater Growing Project has been around for a number of years and support remains strong.

Jill Tripp is a local farmer and volunteer. “We’re excited to have this great crowd out on a Sunday evening. Farmers are a little bit stressed about not getting onto the fields yet and I think getting together with community really helps to deal with the stress and allows us to have a great time together.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see farmers out trying to seed their own crops this week.”

The information night also included a presentation by Gordon Janzen who is the Canadian Foodgrains Bank representative for Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. He touched on the increased demand for food around the world. He points out the past year presented numerous challenges.

“The situation is that the number of hungry people around the world has increased dramatically. A recent report has come out saying how much the pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine have exacerbated the situations for hunger hot spots around the world raising food costs. That has impacts for our food programs” said Janzen.

“We see in our food stores how much food costs have risen and that’s the case globally. It’s the case for our member agencies responding to hunger hot spots like Ukraine, Northern Ethopia and South Sudan Madagascar just to mention a few hot spots.”

We’re into mid May and Janzen hopes producers can hit the fields as soon as possible. However moisture is having an impact on this year’s timing when it comes to seeding.

“I haven’t heard much from the growing projects but I know there is some anxiety about the shrinking window of time but farmers are pleased there’s lot of moisture in the ground especially after last years dry conditions in many areas.

Janzen says there will be a slight decrease in the number of growing projects. A normal year would have about 37 projects and he says this year will be close to 35.

“We’ve always had one person come and seed our foodgrains crop in a day. It’s 300 acres so it’s a decent sized field and we appreciate the people who come out to do that.”

“We have a lot of amazing people in our community who really value the global fight to end hunger and are motivated to be involved in the growing project. We always have a great group of farmers willing to bring out their equipment each year and we are really grateful for that” said Jill Tripp.

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is working with growing projects looking for ways to engage the community to raise awareness of the need to feed hungry people around the world.