Coaldale-Lethbridge Community Growing Project

The wheat crop was swathed today. The crop looks good. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with our harvest intentions of having a ripe, dry, ready to harvest crop next Friday.

Due to all the wet weather this fall, the harvest date is changed to Friday September 26, 2008 at 4:00 pm. Come join us for the auction at 3:00 pm to auction the straw and then have a burger as you watch the big combines clean the grain off the field. It is an impressive sight.

Harvest Day is fast approaching for the Growing Project. Presently the date set for Friday September 19, 2008. The Barbeque will start at 2:00 pm with an auction for the straw starting at 3:00pm. Weather permitting the combines will start the harvest at 4:00pm. If you would like to come join us, please do so as this is quite a sight. If you wish to make a donation to the project you can do so at the barbeque. This is quite a sight so please plan to be there on time. Farm Credit Corp. is donating the burgers for the Barbeque so come join us watch this incredible event.

That's right! We are excited to announce that the crop was seeded on Friday. and what with the warm weather we've been having the 'experts' suggested that the crop could be up and growing in as little as three or four days. So why not stop in three short miles south of town and check in on the crop every now and again. Here are some pictures from the big day...

Is not this the fast that I choose … to break every yoketo share your bread with the hungry?
(Isaiah 58:6,7)
The Coaldale—Lethbridge Community Growing Project is one way we can offer life and hope to those who daily go without food.
Working in cooperation with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, we seek to engage our energy and ability and make a local effort towards ending world hunger. We are starting a Coaldale—Lethbridge Community Growing Project. We want you to join us!
A Community Growing Project is one way in which people can contribute towards easing the disparity of food resources around the world. And together with others, we can make a significant impact on the lives of people we may never meet, but for whom life will be bitter and short unless we choose to act.
Community growing projects are a unique way for people to contribute grain and other agricultural commodities to help people who are hungry around the world.
A typical project involves a group of people working together to farm a common plot of land. After harvest, the production is donated through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for overseas food aid and agricultural development projects.
We are inviting you and your neighbours to become involved in this local project. Our plan is that we will rent a quarter-section of land from a local farmer, and through the “rental” of each acre cover the costs of planting, fertilizing, and harvesting grain barley. The barley will then be sold at auction, and the monies raised turned over to the Canadian Foodgrains Program for use in their many programs around the world.
We want you to share in this program…
· Sponsor an acre for $150 – and receive a tax receipt for this gift.
· Tell your friends and neighbours
· Consider how your business, company, group or organization can contribute to this project.
· Spread the good news of this exciting project
· Drive out to see your part in growing food for others
· Join us at the auction of the grain
· Come and share in the feast at the harvest.
For more information contact the local coordinating committee:
Coaldale—Lethbridge Community Growing Project
P.O. Box 1028, Coaldale, Alberta T1M 1M8
Chair: Edgar Dueck
Secretary: Ed Donkersgoed
Treasurer: Herb Wall

Or you can become an acre-sponsor through your local church by cheque, made out to your church, indicating it is for the Coaldale—Lethbridge Community Growing Project. Your church treasurer will forward it to Herb Wall along with others received.
[1] Statistics provided from Canadian Foodgrains Bank website: http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/

Food commodity prices haven risen dramatically around the world, with some prices having doubled during the last year. These rising food prices are contributing to growing hunger and social and political unrest. It is costing governments and aid agencies much more to provide food assistance to the most vulnerable, and additional funding will be required to even maintain current levels of assistance.
The rising food prices are caused by a complex set of factors. In recent years, food production has not kept pace with rapidly rising consumption resulting in lower carry over stocks each year. This growing demand is driven by population growth, rapidly rising meat and dairy consumption by a growing Asian middle class which requires much greater amounts of feed grains, and an increasing use of grains for biofuel production. Rising energy prices are driving up the costs of producing and transporting food. Unfavourable weather has reduced production in some parts of the world. The increase in yields has also slowed in recent years.
Most hungry people in the world depend on the market for much of their food, even small scale
subsistence farmers who usually do not produce enough to meet their food needs year round. For the poor that are living on less than a $1 a day, much of their income is spent on food. Rapidly rising food prices will force millions of poor people to reduce the amount and variety of food they consume, reduce their expenditures on health and education, and reduce savings and sell assets leading to further impoverishment.
Governments and aid agencies must provide direct assistance to the most vulnerable to prevent a growing hunger crisis. However, rising food prices mean that budgets do not go as far. Additional funds will need to be found.
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank has estimated that the amount of food aid we can provide will decline by at least 25 percent and probably much more unless we can secure additional funding. We will be appealing to our donors and the Canadian government for additional funding. We need at least $5 million in additional funding to maintain current levels of programming.
It is possible that rising food prices will help poor developing country farmers in the longer-term. This will only happen if targeted investments by governments and aid agencies are made to support small scale farmers, including investments in extension services, roads, and market development.
Otherwise much of the gain from higher prices will be captured by larger scale farmers and the poor will only be left with their hunger.
Media Contact:
Heather Plett
Canadian Foodgrains Bank
204-944-1993 ext. 229
h_plett@foodgrainsbank.ca

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