Nebraska farm families helping to eliminate world hunger

AGNEW, Neb. (CNS) — Harvest time is full of activity, hope and anticipation for many Nebraska farm families, but some are looking beyond their own operations to address world hunger.

Two of those are the families of Mike and Chere Kane of Valparaiso and Dave and Becky Grimes of Agnew.

Both the Grimes and Kane families are participating in Foods Resource Bank, a relatively new U.S. program that has as its goal the elimination of world hunger. It assists farmers in developing countries to become self-sufficient in food production and have food security.

The Foods Resource Bank project is one that both the Grimes and Kane families see as a means of being good stewards of the land.

"Everybody likes to do something to help others," David Grimes told the Southern Nebraska Register, newspaper of the Lincoln Diocese. "We just need to find where we can help. Everyone can do something."

The bank works this way: Individuals and church communities throughout the United States coordinate "growing projects." The volunteers raise, harvest and sell a crop, then use the profits to help people in developing countries feed themselves.

Farmers in those countries are given the tools to grow enough food and livestock to feed their own families with extra to share, barter or sell to pay for schooling and necessary medications.

The Foods Resource Bank — on the Internat at www.foodsresourcebank.org — does not get involved in population control, family planning or even housing.

Sixteen Christian churches and denominations, including Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Catholic Church’s overseas relief and development agency, are member organizations of the Foods Resource Bank.

Statistics show that 800 million people in the world go to bed hungry every night; 24,000 people die from hunger every day. That equals one person dying every seven seconds from hunger and malnutrition, according to Steve Hietbrink, who is Nebraska coordinator for Foods Resource Bank.

He said people often do not comprehend the magnitude of world hunger.

"To get an idea of how many 800 million people are," he explained, imagine "if you could fill UNL (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) Memorial Stadium in Lincoln with 76,000 people for eight home games, it would take 1,315 years of games to reach 800 million."

Hietbrink, who lives in Firth, said virtually any commodity that can be sold for cash can be used as a growing project for the Foods Resource Bank. U.S. participants have grown peas, pumpkins, sweet corn and gourds.

In the Midwest, projects usually consist of crops grown in rows such as soybeans, milo and corn, and grasses such as alfalfa, according to Hietbrink. He said cattle and hogs are also popular.

There are no restrictions or minimums as far as the number of acres used for a growing project. Hietbrink said projects may be as small as a lot in town or as large as 160 acres. Most of the projects involve 30 to 40 acres.

He added that there is no one way of selecting a project or of bringing it to completion.

Once local participants decide on a project, they contact the Foods Resource Bank board, which is comprised of one member of each of the 16 participating religious denominations.

Then with the help of missionaries from each of the participating church groups, the board and local growers determine what overseas project their proceeds will support.

When a U.S. growing project begins, the lands or animals for the project are acquired. Sometimes a farmer will donate the use of his land for a project. At other times churches, individuals or groups raise the money to pay rent for the land that is needed.

There are several Foods Resource Bank projects under way in southern Nebraska.

The Grimes and Kane families each have provided land for corn projects, and both families have had help from local churches, groups and individuals.

The proceeds from their project will go to the Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas in the Philippines.

The three-year program is designed to assist at least 300 Filipino farmers to improve agricultural productivity by establishing and implementing viable farming practices.

The Philippines program was chosen because one of the Kanes’ sons, Matthew, is a native of the Philippines and was adopted by the Kanes in 1991 at the age of 4.

In addition to addressing world hunger, the growing projects also advance relations and dialogue between Christian denominations as members of various churches work together on the projects.

Hietbrink noted that the projects also allow urban parishes not only to become involved in world hunger issues but also to learn how food is produced. Foods Resource Bank partners city parishes with rural parishes in pursuing projects.

"It allows an urban parish to know what it takes to put in an acre of corn," he commented.

"It is amazing how we can cross denominational lines when the goal is to feed people," he added.

The Foods Resource Bank began in the late 1990s, after an Ohio farm couple, Vernon and Carol Sloan, wanted to start something similar to a Canadian program that shipped excess grain to Third World countries as gifts or loans.

The Sloans and their United Methodist congregation began shipping grain directly to Angola. But it cost $24 per bushel to ship, and the enterprise quickly became too expensive.

The couple also realized that sending the grain did not help farmers in those countries become self-sufficient, so the couple and their church founded the Foods Resource Bank.