November Field Notes Newsletter

CIDA UPDATE

Jim Cornelius, CFGB Exec. Director

We have recently submitted a funding proposal to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to renew their funding for another five years. Our current funding agreement ends March 31, 2011. We are requesting $25 million a year in matching funding and are hopeful that this level of funding will be approved.
An independent evaluation of our program commissioned by CIDA was recently completed. This evaluation concluded that Foodgrains Bank has made significant progress towards the achievement of
outcomes in all areas of programming. More specifically, CFGB has contributed to increased food consumption, reduced acute and chronic malnutrition, and protected and strengthened livelihoods of hunger affected people.

Please remember to invite your Member of Parliament to harvests and special events and to express thanks for the matching funding that we receive. These invitations and expressions of thanks help retain government
support for our program.

UPDATE ON PAKISTAN
Joan Barkman, Program Director

In the July Field Notes we shared with you some encouraging examples of people who were building their own sustainable food security by participating in the projects supported by the CFGB. Only a few weeks

later, Pakistan faced their most devastating floods in the last 80 years. The floods affected millions of people

throughout a vast part of the country. New communities are still being affected by the residual flood waters.

Canadian Foodgrains Bank members and partners got into high gear from the outset and mounted a

substantial response. Coordinating with government, other organizations and the UN, our partners Interfaith
League Against Poverty and Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan have made a very significant

response. CWS P/A has distributed 23,500 food kits to (each kit consisting of one month’s food rations). CFGB members through PWS&D have supplied 8,400 of those food kits. Another 16,000 food kits were supplied via CRWRC’s partner ILAP. At the end of September we agreed to supply another 16,500 food kits through ILAP.

PWS&D is also in discussion with CWS P/A to provide a second round of assistance. To date, Foodgrains Bank members have provided resources totaling $3.7 million. There is still a long road ahead for affected families to restore their lives. CFGB members and partners will be there to help in their rehabilitation. In the meantime, we also continue support for the initiatives that help people build their longer‐term security.

FAIR FOOD PRICES MUST BE STABLE FOOD PRICES
Stuart Clark, Senior Policy Advisor

For decades, low prices for many basic staples blocked efforts to improve agriculture in developing countries. The increase in agricultural prices from 2003 onwards until 2008 marked a slow turnaround in this situation. In parts of Africa, grass roofs have begun to be replaced with metal ones. Agricultural prices clearly matter and agriculture, which is acknowledged by the World Bank as the most effective way to reduce hunger and poverty in developing countries, will only make a big difference if these prices are remunerative for farmers and affordable for consumers. But a new issue is emerging – the volatility of agricultural prices. It’s not just the level of agricultural prices but their stability that matters. And agricultural price instability is increasing. Canadian urban consumers are largely unaware of this but farmers, anxious to use futures markets to guarantee their selling prices, are very aware of how wheat prices have shot up in the past four months. Food importing countries are losing faith that the international market can be trusted to provide the reliable supply of food that they need at a price they can plan for. Furthermore, CFGB is closely involved in the
renegotiation of the Food Aid Convention, a treaty which currently guarantees the annual availability of
about 5 million tonnes of food for emergencies and chronic hunger in developing countries. After 43 years

of making promises to provide an annual amount of food, the countries including Canada which are members of this treaty are beginning to waver. Their fear of agricultural price volatility is pushing them to talk of shifting their commitment from an amount of food to an amount of money. This means that if the world prices rise quickly, often driving increasing hunger, there will be less food aid available to help. If the commitment to the hungry is made in money rather than food, the hungry will end up having to eat less if prices remain volatile.

Ending hunger and feeding a growing population will mean reducing agricultural price volatility. The Foodgrains Bank has been doing research on the role that global food reserves could play in solving this new
problem. For at least three decades after the Second World War, food reserves played a key role in assuring stable agricultural prices. But problems in their management drove their costs to unacceptable levels
and they were abandoned. Yet reserves have been used for thousands of years to provide stability – Joseph
managed Egyptian food reserves for the Pharaohs. CFGB staff and supporters are discussing new ideas for
21st Century global food reserves that can again provide price stability – to promote agricultural development, to ensure reliable food supplies and to, hopefully, ensure that the Food Aid Convention will continue to make a predictable and reliable commitment to those who must look to us for food in a crisis. Perhaps new kinds of reserves will become part of ending hunger.

IVEP – INTERN, Terence Zimazile Sibanda

Terence Sibanda is a Mennonite Central Committee Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) participant from
Zimbabwe interning at the CFGB. He has a BSc in Agriculture and an Honours degree in Animal Sciences. Terence has worked on food security and food aid programs with CFGB. He is trained in Conservation
Agriculture, a method of farming that increases yields in drought prone areas using simple, easily accessible
tools. Terence has taught this method to farmers in his region, helping them to become self‐sufficient once
again. He is going to be visiting and speaking to Canadians from his own knowledge and experience in
conservation agriculture, understanding the impacts of climate change, and the causes of food insecurity.

Contact your regional coordinator about the opportunity of Terence speaking in your community.

2011 FOOD STUDY/ YOUTH DISCOVERY TOURS
James Kornelsen, Public Engagement Coordinator
Dave Colvinson, Youth Engagement Coordinator

CFGB will be welcoming Nejabat Khan, a Foodgrains

Bank partner from Church World Service Afghanistan, as a People to People visitor to Canada. He is scheduled to make a brief stop in Toronto where he will speak at the Rosedale Presbyterian Church on the 31st of October. Nejabat is then scheduled to attend the Fall Information Meetings in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in the month of November.

The Food Study Tour to Ethiopia in January/February 2011 is full. If you would like to have your name added to a list of potential participants for the 2012 tour please contact James j_kornelsen@foodgrainsbank.ca.

Youth Discovery Tour to Guatemala, an amazing opportunity to study more closely the impact of mining activities on small‐scale farmers and food security and how Canadian companies are involved, is still seeking
participants, ages 17‐24. The tour is planned for January 17‐29, 2011 with an approximate cost is $3000.
For more information please contact Dave d_colvinson@foodgrainsbank.ca. Application forms are on the Foodgrains Bank website at www.foodgrainsbank.ca/food_study_tours.aspx or can be made available by calling 800‐665‐0377.

GROWING PROJECT FINANCIAL REPORTING FORMS

were mailed to the project contacts with the July newsletter and can also be found at http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/reporting_and_receipting.aspx. If you have any questions about reporting

please contact the Mayberrys mayberry@xplornet.com or Ellen Paulley e_paulley@foodgrainsbank.ca

PUTTING THE FUN IN FUNDRAISING!

Sharing God’s Harvest growing project in the Wallaceburg area hosted its second annual walkathon in Aug. This stroll along the St Clair River in Port Lambton not only generates funds for the project but is
proving to be a fun way to raise money. Their first effort last summer raised $1545 in pledges and they
report, “You cannot put a price on the fellowship that this event generates”. They start with a picnic in
Brander Park and walk the 5km up and down the river afterwards.

St John’s United Church in Kemptville has organized a community garden in the area and operated a
vegetable market in the church parking lot for several Saturdays in late summer since 2004. Thanks to a diligent group of volunteers the garden is tilled, planted, weeded and its bounty enjoyed by their
generous and loyal customers. It has been described as a “win ‐ win” situation for everyone. The project offers outreach for the community, they sell fresh organic produce to their customers and it generates funds for the CFGB.

Archie Pedden decided to have a little fun at his RBC Dominion Securities display at the Outdoor Farm Show recently. Archie reports, “I had people try to throw a loonie or toonie into a garden watering can from about 5 feet away. If they got their coin into the watering can, they could win a small prize from RBC Dominion Securities. Whether it went in or not, all of the proceeds raised were for a great cause ‐ CFGB. I

draped a kid’s plastic pool with a blanket and put the watering can in the middle. This helped to catch the
coins that didn't go in the watering can. People like to have fun and test their skills. Most Canadians have a
loonie or a toonie kicking around in their pocket that they are willing to donate for a good cause. It all adds
up!”

Larry Fast farms near Rivers, Manitoba. He knows farming and fashion! He was the one that started “The

Ugly Sweater Saga” by critiquing a sweater that Ray Baloun, one of the CFGB Board of Directors, had bought new for $2. Larry made a $100 donation to the CFGB on the condition that Ray would promise not to wear the sweater ever again. For such a worthy cause Ray agreed. However, it didn’t stop him from passing his sweater on to a colleague to wear for a day. The colleague wore the ugly sweater and got several

pledges from his staff and customers to donate to the Foodgrains Bank.

This spring Ray challenged Larry to wear the sweater for an entire Sunday. His congregation warmed to the ugly sweater idea and $1550 was collected for the CFGB. Ray writes, “So now my poor taste in clothing, matched with my eye for deals has resulted, with the potential 4:1 matching from CIDA, in $9500 raised to help people in need. Turing something bad into to something good for so many! I still think the sweater is okay. Would anyone like to borrow it?”

Ray has a blog about his Kernels of Hope growing project and more about the ugly sweater.  http://kernelsofhope.blogspot.com/