Whitemud Growing Project working to end hunger

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Published on Friday, June 24, 2016

By Kira Paterson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

For the fourth year in a row, farmers from the Neepawa, Arden, Plumas and Gladstone area are coming together to grow crops for a good cause. The Whitemud Growing Project, started by area farmers Roland Unger, Charles Doell, Jeff Harder and Jake Hamm, is raising crops to make money for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB). 

The Whitemud Growing Project officially started up in 2013 and has raised over $88,000 for CFB over the three years it has been running. Hamm noted that there had been a CFB growing project in the area during the 1980s in which he had been involved, but he said after he went overseas, the project lost momentum. 

In 2013, he had been cleaning up some old farmland and wasn’t sure what to do with it. So Roland Unger offered to seed it with corn and they could give the profits to CFB. It started expanding from there and the first year, they had almost 70 acres of crops for the project. This year, they have two fields in the Plumas and Gladstone areas, growing 170 acres of fall rye and 140 acres of canola. 

The field where the canola is being grown is owned by CFB, but the Whitemud group seeds and harvests the crops. The field of rye is a local farmer’s land that has been donated for the project. 

Having over 300 acres means the project committee needs lots of volunteers and donations to make this happen. They got donations of seeds and fertilizer from different agricultural suppliers in the area. Most years, they have a few equipment dealers and local farmers who lend the equipment they need for seeding and harvesting. 

They had seeding and harrowing equipment donated for use to get the seeding done, but they will need some volunteers to donate time and equipment come harvest. Hamm said that last year, they had six combines going to harvest their crops and he hopes they can have six to eight this year. He said that having a group working together on the fields really builds a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.

Equipment and time are not the only things that the committee is looking for. They are also hoping to have a community barbecue supper before or after the harvest and need some ideas on how to go about that. Hamm said that CFB often has supper meetings in Brandon or Winnipeg, but they would like to have one in this area to let the community know what they’re doing and how CFB helps the hungry. 

Hamm noted that the committee is also always open to new members and anyone interested can join the committee. 

Any farmer or business interested in volunteering time, equipment or ideas can contact any of the four board members. Roland Unger can be reached at 204-476-6024, Charles Doell at 204-856-6621, Jeff Harder at 204-476-0631 or Jake Hamm at 204-570-2446. 

CFB is an organization made up of a partnership between 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies. The organization works to end global hunger in three ways. They support international programs that help meet the immediate need for food, reduce malnutrition and help with sustainable food security; work to influence national and international policies that can help end hunger; and educate and engage Canadians to get them involved in ending global hunger.

The Whitemud Growing project is one of around 40 registered CFB growing projects in Manitoba and almost 250 across Canada.