Local farmers help CFB rank as top 100 charity

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This article was published 30/11/2023 (712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local producers and volunteers aren’t surprised that the Canadian Foodgrains Bank has been named one of the top 100 charities in Canada of 2023.

Charity Intelligence, an organization that monitors and evaluates Canadian non-profit groups to help guide donors with their giving decisions, said the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB) made the list in the international aid category. It was also among the top 10 impact charities for all non-profit groups based on demonstrated impact per dollar.

CFB is a partnership of 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies that work with locally-based organizations in developing countries to meet emergency food needs, achieve long-term solutions to hunger and work to foster informed action by Canadians and governments to support their international cause.

A community growing project usually involves a group of people — including farmers, fuel dealers, equipment dealers, local small businesses, grain elevator staff, church congregations and more — who gather together to farm a plot of land. When they harvest their crop, they sell it on the Canadian market and donate the proceeds to the Foodgrains Bank.

More than 200 growing projects across Canada contribute approximately half of the donations received by the Foodgrains Bank.

Myron Peters is the field manager of the Killarney Foodgrains Grow Project, located 99 kilometres southeast of Brandon. This year, 100 acres of red spring wheat was planted for CFB. He’s been volunteering with the project for 17 years, and this year, the grow project was planted at his own farm.

“It’s just an absolute honour to work together with the CFB,” he said. “In our local committee, we’ve got an excellent bunch of people, and the support we get from Killarney and the surrounding area has been excellent over the years.”

This year’s growing project in Killarney brought in $80,000 for CFB, which will go towards helping a lot of people across the world, Peters said. On top of that, the CFB has boots on the ground to try to improve the lives of the people they’re donating food to, he added.

“They’re educating the people and helping them with their circumstances and their conditions to be more self-sufficient, and that’s a huge thing,” Peters said.

Don Neufeld is the co-ordinator for the Crossborders Community Project near Kola, Man., located 112 kilometres west of Brandon. He’s been involved with the CFB for nearly 40 years, and says that the reason it keeps going strong is the support it receives from farmers and community members.

“The community has been very supportive in all the years. Hopefully, the next generation and other younger generations will get involved,” Neufeld said.

Being involved with the CFB is also something of a family legacy for Neufeld, who says his father and uncle were two of the first people in western Canada to get involved with the organization when it was brand new. They decided to get involved because of the way the charity operated, Neufeld said.

“Only five per cent of the funds that were raised got used for administration. The rest actually went overseas. At that time, they actually shipped the grains from Canada to Sri Lanka, or Nigeria or wherever it was going,” he said.

After that, the organization evolved and realized they could be more efficient if they would sell the grains for cash in Canada and then buy supplies with it closer to their port of destination.

“They were able to do that with a five per cent administrative cost,” Neufeld said, adding that that’s not the case for any other charity he’s heard of.

Neufeld also appreciates that CFB is an organization that relies on local people in communities doing their part to help their fellow human beings.

“It’s still sustainable, because it’s a grassroots organization,” he said.

CFB executive director Andy Harrington said he’s very pleased with the ranking.

“We are glad we can show transparency and accountability to our supporters, and that our programs have high impact,” Harrington said.

The ranking shows that the CFB does what it promises with its donations, Harrington says, but there are different ways to measure impact. One of the most important measuring sticks for the organization is the “impact for recipients,” he added.

“Most important thing for us is the impact on the ground,” Harrington said.

Charity Intelligence also gave the organization an A+ for results reporting. This is the sixth consecutive year the CFB, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, has been named a top 10 impact charity.

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank started in 1974, when Canadian farmers were harvesting a bumper crop at the same time that families in Bangladesh were facing famine. Their plan to send Canadian grain to people in need was the catalyst for nearly 50 years of humanitarian efforts since.

Because the final harvests from growing projects across the country are sold and turned into cash donations, almost any crop can be used — wheat, canola, corn, barley, soybeans, lentils, flax, forage, silage, or pumpkins and more.

Local businesses can help by donating farming supplies such as seed, chemicals, and fertilizer, along with services like trucking and insurance or promotion, which helps keep costs down and brings local people together to help people facing hunger around the world.

The Foodgrains Bank’s website says that through the federal government’s support, its 15 member agencies are able to leverage donations up to a ratio of 4:1 in food assistance in the developing world — up to $25 million each year.

» mleybourne@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

» X: @miraleybourne