28 in Eastern Europe. He also plans to travel to Manitoba to speak with beef farmers who are working on prairie grassland re-establishment. “I find that we really are struggling to get out of this ‘go big or go home’ mentality and kind of looking at land as a resource to be extracted. I don’t think that’s right,” McIntosh says. “I hope that I can contribute to a cultural shift in terms of how we think about land management.” CLAYTON REESOR AND LUKAS BURKHOLDER For most of their lives, Ontario farmers Clayton Reesor and Lukas Burkholder lived just down the road from one another, although they didn’t meet until they joined the same slow-pitch league in the summer of 2022. The two became instant friends. Reesor and his family grow corn, soybeans, and wheat, as well as retail sweet corn, on a farm near Scarborough. Slowly, they’re adding other produce to the operation, including watermelon, garlic, and tomatoes. Burkholder and his family grow 3,000 acres of corn, wheat and soybeans and custom harvest another 3,000 acres. While his family is based in Markham, they also farm land near Pickering and Scarborough. For as long as Reesor and Burkholder can remember, their families have been involved in charitable growing projects through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (GFGB), a faith and farmer-based organization. But they had no continued from page 27 idea where the funds ended up and whose lives they were impacting. The program is unique in the way it gathers funds. Participating growers set aside a field on which they produce a crop for charity. Proceeds go directly to Canadian Food Grains Bank projects that help families in need around the world. “Grain farmers are the main contributors to the charity,” says Burkholder. The pair only recently learned more about the charitable work and its impact. Burkholder had heard about a learning tour where farmers participating in the grow projects could apply to take part in a learning tour. He reached out to Reesor to see if he’d like to apply to join him. They were both accepted and headed off to Nepal for two weeks in February 2024. The learning tour has several aims. The first is to show CFGB project participants firsthand where their funds go. Participants, 10 in total on this tour, return with newfound insight into the challenges farm families face in developing nations and with an incentive to promote the program to their fellow farmers. In Nepal, most of the families Burkholder and Reesor visited struggle to put a nutritious meal on the table, especially in the winter months. “Many farmers don’t grow enough food or make enough money selling their produce to feed their family a high-quality diet until the next harvest comes around,” Burkholder explained. One of the programs that was put in place by local partner agencies was the establishment of women’s groups. Members are offered training funded by the charity, where they learn the importance of a nutritionally sound diet and how to achieve it. One of the solutions is to teach members how to grow a “kitchen garden” that provides fresh produce year-round. “The locals seemed very happy with the programs and help that was being offered to them, and one of the biggest takeaways from the trip for me was the willingness of the Nepali people to learn from us and how humble and welcoming they were towards our group,” Burkholder says. Reesor was also impressed by the impact the CFGB projects had on rural communities in Nepal. Charity funding was used to purchase or subsidize tools for forage chopping for livestock feed and mills for grinding flour. “Another project that stood out to me was the building of concrete reservoirs to collect and hold water for irrigation, something that made a large impact on the dry, terraced farms,” he says. Both Reesor and Burkholder plan to share what they saw with their community back home. They believe doing so will drive continued interest in supporting the valuable work. • Industry News LUKAS BURKHOLDER AND CLAYTON REESOR IN NEPAL. PHOTOS SUPPLIED.
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