WATCH: There’s been a show of support for a Surrey farmer who’s been at the centre of controversy in recent days. Jeremy Hunka explains.
Every weekend you can generally find dozens of volunteers at God’s Little Acre, tending to a farm that produced hundreds of thousands of pounds of food for the needy in the last four years.
Saturday was a little different. There were plenty of volunteers, but also media members. A new volunteer sign-up form. And an impromptu press conference that sometimes took the tone of a political rally.
“How many volunteers here know we were selling product, and we were doing it to be self-sustainable, and you supported me doing that?” asked God’s Little Acre owner Jas Singh.
The crowd of 50 behind him all put their hands up, before applauding.
Singh’s farm has become a major success story in the last four years. It’s grown from a small start-up into one of the highest-profile farms in Metro Vancouver, with most of the food going to those that need it most.
READ MORE: Controversy swirls around God’s Little Acre farm
But he’s also raised the ire of many farmers and people involved with food banks. Weeks after Singh launched a crowdfunding campaign, Food Banks BC, which has 96 member food banks across the province, said they no longer take food from Singh due to a number of issues they say were brought to him in 2013 and never addressed, including:
- Food bank members were asked to give money to Singh to help grow his farm, but the return they received in produce was worth less than the amount invested.
- At least one food bank member “regularly received produce that was deemed unfit for human consumption.”
- Food bank members would provide volunteers to God’s Little Acre to grow produce for food banks, but “in some cases volunteers complained that the crops they had assisted with in fact were sold for profit.”
- Singh would imply to donors, volunteers and supporters that God’s Little Acre is a registered charity, which is not the case
Singh has said his volunteers have always known who they were helping and has called Food Banks B.C.’s allegations an attack on their work. He invited them to show up Saturday to show their support.
“The volunteers have built this farm,” he said.
“I just wanted to do this project alone and be alone on a farm. But it grew and it grew and it grew because they love the idea. They know exactly what we’re doing here.”
When asked directly if volunteers had ever done work they thought was for charity, but Singh actually made profit off, Singh said “I don’t know how to answer that.”
“There are a lot of volunteers here that wish to work on both sides…If they came here and they asked what we are doing here, we said we are selling items to be self-sustained, and doing for-profit gifting.”
Still, Singh’s actions indicated he knew some things could have been clearer. Now, those that want to volunteer need to sign a form, saying whether they want to work in any part of the farm, the charity part, or the business part.
“It was a Mickey Mouse operation, but we’re turning Mickey Mouse into Disneyland right now,” he said.
“We’ve brought people on board who are professionals who are going to turn this into a very very well run machine.”
Scott Nicholl of Food Banks BC applauded the changes.
“The fact he has expressively identified that there is a for-profit and not for profit side to his operation, excellent. That’s one of the things that we absolutely asked him to do, and we couldn’t be more excited that he’s now doing,” he said.
Still, he said that there are issues preventing Food Banks BC from resuming the partnership.
“This is a difference of philosophy. There is nothing absolutely more critical to any charitable organization. Any organization that takes public money and volunteer time has to, above all else, protect the integrity of that trust. They have to be transparent and they have to be open,” he said.
When asked why many in the food bank and farming community had issues with him, Singh implied it was a matter a jealousy.
“We’re probably going to turn into Canada’s first sustainable food bank, and that’s a big threat for the people out there who are asking for money for administration costs,” he said.
For his part, Nicholl turned the other cheek, holding out hope that what has turned into a contentious relationship might be repaired.
– With files from Jeremy Hunka
Comments