Residents support ag charities this Christmas
December 22, 2008
By JEAN TYRELL
For The Herald News (Suburban Chicago IL)
Even in difficult economic times, charities and charitable causes still have a place in people's hearts during the holidays. Two agricultural related charities have ties to local residents.
Heifer International
Photograph: Natalia and Rostyslav Stepanuk stand with their Heifer International cow Daria -- a name which means "gift" -- in their barn in Polozhyvo, Ukraine.
Klika, an administrator at Joliet Junior College, strongly believes in sharing with the less-fortunate. In this case, her accumulated cash gifts and her jar of loose change will go to Heifer International, a charity which supports agricultural efforts in developing countries.
Heifer International partners with farmers in different parts of the world who want to develop or improve their agricultural practices.
For example, In the village of Zivay in the Ukraine, farmers have struggled with providing enough food for their families due to poor quality, low-producing cattle. That situation was changed when Heifer was able to provide a higher producing breed of cattle, special feed and training, which all contributed to successful cattle production.
After their project takes off, the receiving partner has to help other farmers, in some way, to share the bounty and continue the chain of giving.
For more information on Heifer International, visit www.heifer.org.
Foods Resource Bank
Doug Harford of Mazon is the volunteer chair of the board of directors of an agricultural charity called Foods Resource Bank, which links local growing efforts to farmers in some of the world's poorest villages.
He recently talked about his efforts for the FRB with Orion Samuelson on WGN radio's "Saturday Noon Show."
Although receipts from this year's project, sponsored by the Mazon United Church of Christ, are being tallied, Harford expects about $30,000 was made from the sale of oats grown at Route 47 and Route 113, and other growing projects in Grundy County. The donation will then be sent to farmers in Ethiopia.
"We work with local partners overseas, many places, mostly in Africa. The money goes to an overseas program administered by one of 16 church-based agencies, who already have a local partner.
"When we're finished overseas, there's someone doing (agricultural) work in another country, that hadn't been able to do it before. We provide them with the resources that they may lack. Our ultimate goal is to provide the agricultural recipient the dignity and pride of raising their own crop," said Harford.
Another aspect of the The Foods Resource Bank is that it partners a rural U.S. church with one in a more urban location. Locally, Harford's church, the Mazon United Church of Christ, shared ownership of the Grundy oat crop with a church in Western Springs.
The Mazon church was able to use the 15 acres where the new Grundy County Highway Department building will be located to plant oats; meanwhile, the Western Springs congregation supported the effort with monetary donations. The suburban members were also able to come to the Grundy area to help with the harvest, an experience that suburban folks aren't always able to have, said Harford.
Other support for the churches' growing project was from the Seneca Future Farmers of American and the Sunday school children at the Mazon church.
When all was said and done, the summer's work at the oat field--the seed and fertilizer for the crop, and the harvesting--was done entirely through donations and volunteer labor.
Unlike the other programs, the Foods Resource Bank doesn't send farmers or food overseas said Harford. It gets the money to small shareholder agricultural projects, where the local farmer makes the decision as to what he or she wants to grow. Farmers use their own resources, said Harford, and his organization might hire the equivalent of a county extension agent to help with the project.
In Vietnam, for example, Harford said, a Vietnamese agricultural educator traveled to the rice-growing regions showing farmers how to replant their crop, using a single rice plant. Prior to demonstration of the replanted rice, crop yields had been low because the plants were crowded. It took time for the educator to be accepted by the local farmers, but eventually they accepted his advice and reaped the reward of better crop yields.
Another project that FRB supports was one designed to help Serbians who were refugees for many years in Albania. By providing funds for the Serbs to build greenhouses, even on a small plot of land, the refugees were able to get their produce to market earlier in the season, and support themselves.
Now in its 10th year, the FRB raised $2.7 million last year through shared rural, urban, faith-based partnerships, like the one here.
"Our goal is to have them (the overseas partners) become self-sufficient, to bring people to self-sufficiency," said Harford. "The money raised is not as important as the idea of you telling them, 'We stand with you.'"
For more information on the Foods Resource Bank, visit www.foodsresourcebank.org.