Huge Charity Harvest

Farmers near Picture Butte have harvested a crop that will help feed people in under-nourished parts of the world.   The money they made selling it will go to for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an organization that provides food aid to people in more than 30 countries around the world.

It was the biggest harvest many of the farmers and other people at the field had ever seen.  The farmers used 15 combines, six semi-trailer trucks, many grain carts and more than a dozen tractors and balers to harvest 147 acres of feed barley.  Feedlots purchased the barley for their cattle earlier this summer.  The proceeds, about 80 thousand dollars will be donated to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

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“We’re truly blessed in this country,” said Leighton Kolk, one of the harvest organizers.  “We’ve got more than enough to eat.  We’ve got more than enough to live our daily lives and there are so many people in the world who don’t have that opportunity.

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank provides food aid to people in Africa and other countries around the world.

Alberta Regional Coordinator Andre Visscher said,  “There are 830 million people in the world who do not have adequate food.  That’s down from ten to 15 years ago where it was over a billion people.  That’s a good thing.  We’re making a difference in the world with hungry people but 830 million is still too many people who do not have enough food.”

This is the thirteenth year that farmers and businesses in the Picture Butte area have helped the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.  Earlier this week, farmers in the Lethbridge and Coaldale areas harvested a crop east of Coaldale for it.  There are about 230 projects across Canada that help the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.  The federal government matches donations four to one.  Last year,  43 million dollars was used to help feed more than two million hungry people.