Page 11 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

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fall 2017
In partnership with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, PWS&d provided emergency food packages for over 2,000 families affected by ooding in Pakistan in 2015. Photo credit: cWsa
PWS&d Celebrates 25th anniversary With Canadian Foodgrains Bank
Photo credit: cFgb corNshare
The food distributions of maize, millet, beans and oil helped to alleviate hunger and suffering in Sahel in West africa after a severe drought in Photo credit: cFgb
By Shaylyn McMahon, Communications Assistant, Canadian Foodgrains Bank
In 1992, when Rick Fee returned to Canada after living in Nigeria for 17 years, he was given an im- portant task.
“I was told, ‘You’re now the di- rector of Presbyterian World Ser- vice & Development... And oh, by the way, we’re members of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank now,’” he remembers.
In Nigeria, Fee worked as minister for a rural parish and was the Africa liaison for The Presbyterian Church in Canada. A few months before he returned home, PWS&D partnered with the Foodgrains Bank.
“I said, ‘Oh, that’s lovely. What- ever that is,’” says Fee, who wasn’t familiar with the organiza- tion at the time.
A few months after he returned to Canada, in early 1993, Fee was not only on his way to Somalia to learn more about the Foodgrains Bank—he was a member of its board.
At the time, an intense civil war threatened the lives of tens of thou- sands of Somalis; the visit was a way to learn more about Soma-
lia’s food security situation. After witnessing the food needs in that country, Fee saw the importance of the Foodgrains Bank’s work.
His next task was to edu- cate members of the Presbyte- rian Church in Canada about the Foodgrains Bank and encourage them to support PWS&D’s efforts to end global hunger.
“I made Canadian Foodgrains Bank one of my major foci,” he says, referring to how the trip im- pacted his thinking. “Every chance I got, I spoke [about] and highlighted the Foodgrains Bank.”
For Fee, the partnership with the Foodgrains Bank was a godsend for Canadian Presbyterians.
“In the news were all these ma- jor famines and major wars,” says Fee. “And it was constantly, ‘What can we do? What can we do?’”
“This was finally an answer,” he continues. “This is what we can do, and this is where we can contribute.”
In 1993, a year after joining the Foodgrains Bank, Presbyterians raised $40,000 for PWS&D’s ac- count with the Foodgrains Bank. The next year, it more than tripled that amount to $148,000.
Fee says he wasn’t surprised at
how Canadian Presbyterians took to suppor ting the Foodgrains Bank through PWS&D. “People wanted to do something, and this was a practical way to do that,” he says.
CornShare —
bringing urban and rural Presbyterians together
In the beginning, the most com- mon way Presbyterians sup- por ted PWS&D through CFGB was through growing projects, where farmers come together to grow a crop, sell it and donate the proceeds.
“People kept saying, ‘How can we help?’ and I kept saying, ‘A growing project,’” says Fee. “But many of these people weren’t on farms. They were in the cities.”
As a result, the CornShare mod- el was born. Urban Presbyterian churches were paired with rural congregations that had access to land and were able to organ- ize a growing project. The urban congregations would help cover the cost of inputs like insurance, seeds, fer tilizer and fuel.
At harvest time, members of the urban congregations would often travel to meet their rural partners. Together, they would celebrate the
harvest before selling the crop and donating the proceeds.
“Even here in Toronto we would get a bus and drive two or three hours west of here and visit the farmers,” says Fee. “It was a great twinning back and for th.”
The name—CornShare—origi- nated because corn was the most common crop harvested by the early supporters. Although the projects started with corn, Fee says each project eventually began planting whatever made sense for them, including soy- beans and barley.
St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Eckville, Alberta, started one of these projects.
“We’ve been supporting Ca- nadian Foodgrains Bank for 25 years,” says Sandra Franklin- Law, the minister of St. Paul’s Presbyterian. “Ever since it part- nered with PWS&D.”
In 1997, Franklin-Law went on a study tour with the Foodgrains Bank to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. She says that trip was a life-changing experience, and for that reason, she’s made sure that St. Paul’s Presbyterian continues to support PWS&D and CFGB.
For the congregation of fewer
than 100 people, that support ini- tially took the form of a grain drive.
Each year, members of the church would bring coffee and doughnuts to the local grain el- evator during harvest and col- lect donations from farmers who shared part of their proceeds of that year’s harvest.
After 12 years of the grain drive, a local couple in Eckville donated 30 acres of land for the church to start a growing project. Thanks to donations by more lo- cal landowners and support from the Town of Eckville, the growing project has now expanded to 130 acres.
Staying true to Franklin-Law’s vow of continued support, St. Paul’s covers the cost of seeds for the growing project each year.
For Franklin-Law, having a church and community that’s so committed to helping hungry people overseas is a way to see God’s commandment of loving one’s neighbour in action.
“When you’re out in the field working with the farmers, and you hear them talking about how im- portant it is to have a good crop so that the Foodgrains Bank can
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