The Canadian Foodgrains Bank Grow Projects are winding down for another year as harvest comes to a close.

Manitoba Foodgrains Bank Rep, Harold Penner, says the province’s grow projects were pretty outstanding in most areas.

“The cereal crops that came in earlier,” says Penner, “were very, very good as well as the canola crops. The soybean crops were a little weaker. I guess there were some places that just didn’t have rain in the flowering season. So, some of our soybean crops came off very well, but a lot of them were in that 30 bushel, maybe a little less range.”

Penner says the money raised each year through the community grow projects makes a difference on a global level.

“It makes a huge difference. We do about $40 million worth of work every year and that has to make a difference in the lives of a lot of people. We help about a million people up to 1.5 million some years depending on where we’re working. And so it certainly makes a difference to those people.

Penner will be stepping into a new role within the next few months. He adds right now they are in transition as they bring harvest to a close.

“My new role will be to liaison between all of the people across the country doing this work with our head office,
and just trying to help people to get more of a strategic approach to our work and try to reach more people - try to get more communities to get involved.”

“We’ve been working quite a bit already to analyse what is it that’s been working well? What is it that we can tweak and change? And, how do we reach people in communities where they would probably be willing to do this but we haven’t really been able to connect with them yet?”

“Maybe we need to look at other kinds of things,” Penner suggests, “not just grow projects. Maybe we can get more music concerts going, maybe we can get the cattle people more involved than we have been. It’s just to keep increasing the awareness of the hunger in the world and getting more Canadians involved no matter what walk of life they’re in.

Harold Penner has a rich history with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and has seen the change it has made around the globe, through food assistance, Ag and livelihood programs and nutrition projects. Each year, the CFB works with communities to end world hunger in approximately 40 countries around the world.

“There’s so much need in the world today,” Penner shares. “And this year is worse again with all the drought and the fighting and everything that goes on around the world. So, it’s so very good that we can keep on, keep at it and keep doing this work.”

For more information on the Canadian Foodgrains Bank visit www.foodgrainsbank.ca