Ag Days in Brandon on January 15, 16 and 17
If you’re planning to come to Ag Days please look up our booth and come for a chat. Last year some of you told me later that your couldn’t find the booth. We’ll be right on Main Street. If you know where the washrooms are between the UCT Pavilion and the Manitoba Room you’ll find us just a couple of booths over. We’ll be on the opposite side of the “street” from where we were last year.

One exciting addition this year is that we’ll be a part of the Amazing Agricultural Adventure. You can find out more about it at http://www.aitc.mb.ca/AmazingAgricultureAdventure.htm .

Silver Anniversary
2008 marks the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. What should we do to celebrate? We celebrate the generosity of supporters who have made our mission possible for the past 25 years. We also lament the fact that the need continues and many people still don’t have enough resources to meet the basic needs of themselves and their families.

Is there something you would like to do in your community to mark this occasion? Could this be the year to have a growing project in your community if you haven’t had one before, or not for several years? It doesn’t have to be a quarter section – even 20 or 40 acres provides food for a lot of people in a good year. With two more church partners having joined us in 2007 perhaps this is an excellent opportunity to get things going, or expand an existing project.

Beef Project
We still need some help to get the beef project up and running again. Some of you will have heard the details, but I’ll explain this again.
The Southeastern Manitoba Beef Project (SMBP) has new plans underway to re-open our cattle donation/fundraiser project again! We have partnered with Calvin Vaags (Carvers Knife) and have discussed a strategy for a new & improved venture.
How will the program work?
Voucher system: This time the product is a 10 lb. bag of fresh ground beef. Fundraising groups will receive vouchers at the time of delivery, instead of the meat itself. People will take their voucher to the Carvers Knife, in Winnipeg, where they will pick up their bag of fresh meat.
A school or community group wishing to do the fundraising contacts the Fundraising Co-ordinator (FC). The FC gives the go-ahead if enough meat is available based on an estimate of the amount that will be sold. When the fundraiser is closed the FC receives the orders and the money from the group and sends it to the treasurer.

Then the Voucher/Publicity Co-ordinator (VPC) arranges for one is his volunteers to deliver the vouchers to the school and hopefully has an opportunity to give a short talk about hunger and the CFGB, perhaps hand out some pamphlets along with the vouchers.

People take their vouchers to the Carvers Knife and receive their 10 lb bag of fresh meat.

The people responsible for getting cattle work independently and encourage both cattle and money donations. Everyone encourages cash donations which will be receipted by the CFGB. Cattle receipts will be based on market value on the rail at time of slaughter.

We need people! We have people for much of the work already. What we need most are people willing to do some fundraising on the input side. We can use cash to buy cows and get going that way. We can also take cattle. This can be done in a couple of ways. We could make arrangements at Auction Marts so that cattle could be donated and the money sent directly to the beef project. If you have an auction mart near you perhaps you could discuss it with the owners and managers. We could even have some special auctions perhaps with a “cattle drive” similar to a “grain drive” at an elevator. In some parts of the country we have special auctions where people pay quite a bit above market price for cattle with the money going to the CFGB. Instead of putting it directly to the CFGB we would route it via the beef project and increase the value again.

Another way is donate animals directly, though this takes more coordination. But if a few farmers get together and come up with a trailer load of animals all it takes is one call to Calvin Vaags to make the arrangements. He will then arrange with a proper killing place for the cattle to be delivered, preferably as close to where the animals are as possible, and manage the meat from there.

Multiplication factor
Everyone likes to hear that the Canadian Government through CIDA matches donations 4 to one, so that a $100 donation actually becomes $500. But if a project can do a multiplication even before the money reaches the CFGB coffers you donation grows even more. Roughly a $100 donation to the cattle project (either as cash or beef) will grow to $150 before getting to the CFGB account. In addition a local fundraiser will be raising money for a local project, we will have an opportunity to provide a bit of education about hunger and the CFGB when we deliver brochures along with the vouchers, and urban children and young people will gain a better understanding of where good Manitoba beef actually comes from.


If you are interested in more information on any of this – or would like to discuss any part of this with me please call or write, or see me at the booth in Brandon. Also, please forward this to others in your community, or whoever you think may be interested. If someone gets this "second hand" and would like to be on my list for future mailings please send me a note.

Harold Penner
CFGB Manitoba Resource Coordinator
Phone (204) 347-5351
e-mail: harpen@mts.net