Harvest for the 2022 Central Alberta Foodgrains Growing Project in Lacombe County on Oct. 6, 2022. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Charitable Growing Project

Thousands raised for the hungry in local canola crop harvest

Oct 6, 2022 | 3:28 PM

This year’s 27^th annual charity crop from central Alberta destined for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg to help feed hungry people across the world is now in the bin.

Jack Siebenga, committee member for the Central Alberta Foodgrains Growing Project (CAFGP), says 58 acres of canola were grown along Woody Nook Road, west of Blackfalds, in Lacombe County this year.

“We combined that last Saturday (Oct. 1, 2022),” recalls Siebenga. “Nine combines came out, took about two hours. The seed was all donated and a bunch of the spray was donated, so we get good support from the agri-business people too.”

(Supplied)

He says the quality of this year’s crop was also good.

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“It averaged about 45 bushels per acre and the price was good,” says Siebenga.

(Supplied)

Following the combining and swathing efforts over the weekend, Siebenga says the canola was then taken by truck to a P&H Terminal near Joffre, east of Red Deer.

“The crop yielded about 2,495 bushels of canola, and then there were 1,345 bushels donated by a local farmer. It averaged right around $20 a bushel, so about $82,604 that was raised.

Siebenga says that often gets matched by the federal government on a four-to-one basis.

“The money we raise here, we send it to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg and they have people there that figure out where it’s most needed,” he explains. “I imagine some of it would end up in Ukraine and there’s been a lot of places in Africa too where it goes, and once in a while in South America.”

(Supplied)

Siebenga says farmers can donate grain or canola to the project by designating a certain amount of bushels of their delivered crop at the elevator to the Central Alberta Foodgrains Growing Project.

Also, both rural and urban people can donate cash at any time of the year to the project to cover any input cost not covered by donations. Siebenga says the money is also sent to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg to help wherever the greatest needs are in the world.

Cheques can be made payable to the Central Alberta Foodgrains Project c/o Chris Dyck, Site13, Comp 21, RR1 Lacombe, AB, T4L 2N1.

(Supplied)

“It feels really good,” Siebenga admits. “As farmers, we’re used to doing hands-on stuff, so when we can get involved just doing things on our own like that, it gives you a good feeling.”

“We sell the grain and then they (Canadian Foodgrains Bank) send the money there and they buy food over there. But they also use it for educational purposes, teaching some of the people out there better ways of farming and stuff like that.”

Siebenga says the support the project receives from the community each year, says a lot about central Albertans.

“It shows they’re a caring people and concerned about the rest of the world,” he exclaims. “Nowadays you look around and it seems like everything is going wrong, but there’s always a lot of good stuff going on too.”

(Supplied)

In 2021, the Canadian Foodgrains Banks assisted just over 989,000 people in 31 different countries around the world, raising $49 million. There are around 200 charity crops across Canada, with roughly 30 of them in Alberta.

Related: Canola seeds planted for local charity growing project

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