Surrey man leaves corporate world, starts charity farm

SURREY – A man from Surrey decided to quit his corporate job and return to the land to grow food for the food bank.

Jas Singh decided to plant potatoe, acres of acres of them, enough for the Surrey Food Bank to feed all its customers for most of the year. And today those potatoes will be harvested and picked up.

So far, it’s been a labour of love for Singh. The Surrey farm he is using to grow the nutritious vegetable was just sitting idle for years, but he had a vision to turn the land into a charity farm funded by the community.

“My heart goes out to people who are struggling, and it is more about those people and the people who help, like the food bank. You know, you look at the faces of the people at the food bank and see how hard they work,” says Singh.

This charity farm would not have been possible if not for the generosity of volunteers, businesses and other farmers like Ken Nootebos, who donated time and equipment to this project.

“It was all on faith basically, farming is all on faith. That’s basically why I’m in it,” says Nootebos.

With a project based on faith, it was fitting that they called this land “God’s Little Acre.”

This is the first year the potatoes will be harvested. The crop could yield as much as 50,000 pounds. That is up to $25,000 in value. Next year, they hope to expand the project to 30 acres with additional vegetable crops.

But they need sponsors that would lease their land for cheap.

Singh has already spent $6,000 of his own money on this project, and he is committed. He left the corporate world, worked on a friend’s farm and this one on the side. He did not even tell his father about the project at first, worried about what he might think.

“He looked at the farm and my dad, basically he said, ‘You’re an idiot. If you had told me you had been doing this work, I would have helped you.’ So I have a secret weapon next year, my dad is coming on board as a partner.”

To help Jas, you can email him at Jassingh65@hotmail.com.