CNS STORY: Farmers 'pay down' world hunger by donating to Foods Resource Bank

HUNGER-FARMERS Jan-2-2009 (770 words) With photos. xxxn

Farmers 'pay down' world hunger by donating to Foods Resource Bank

By Joseph O'Brien
Catholic News Service

WAUKON, Iowa (CNS) -- On a typical crisp fall day in November, a group of farmers gathered in a ridge-top cornfield between Waukon and Churchtown to harvest a ripe field of corn. A combine donated by a local farm implement dealer rolled its header like a giant electric razor through more than 15 acres of corn, leaving stubble in its wake and stopping occasionally to unload its hopper into one of a continuous stream of grain trucks.

After bringing their grain to market, the farmers deposited the earnings into a bank -- but it's no ordinary bank to help pay bills or mortgages. Rather, it's one that will help pay down world hunger.

The group of farmers in the field that day represented Corner of Hope, a growing project organized under the aegis of the humanitarian agency Foods Resource Bank. With members of participating area churches -- including St. Patrick Catholic Church in Waukon, Old East and West Paint Creek Evangelical Lutheran, Zalmona United Presbyterian and Zion United Church of Christ in Waukon -- Corner of Hope has raised almost $70,000 for various overseas agricultural programs since 2005, with $32,000 of that from the 2008 harvest alone.

Begun in 1999, Foods Resource Bank has been providing funds for agricultural programs in the developing world through the donations of farmers, businesses and churches in the U.S. The organization describes itself on its Web site (www.foodsresourcebank.org) as a "Christian, nongovernment, humanitarian organization committed to providing food security in the developing world through sustainable small-scale agricultural production, thereby allowing hungry people to know the dignity and pride of feeding themselves."

According to Joan Fumetti, a member of Foods Resource Bank's Midwestern regional field staff in Dubuque, there are 41 growing projects like Corner of Hope in Iowa.

With 15 member organizations -- including Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief and Church World Service-- Foods Resource Bank is a grass-roots operation with little overhead, allowing for a more efficient management of funds, Fumetti said. After the agency receives profits from community growing projects, the money is held until the growing project directs the funds to a specific member organization.

"FRB is not re-creating any services that are already out there," she said. "For example, if you're Catholic, you're already paying for CRS to exist. So FRB simply encourages groups to do a mission through CRS or other member organizations."

Each group -- such as Corner of Hope and its sister project in Winneshiek County, Community of Hope -- decides for itself which charitable groups to send its funds to, Fumetti said. The donations fund a range of agricultural training programs, including agricultural economics, basic agricultural skills, and water and soil improvement, she added.

According to project chairman John Prestemon, Corner of Hope has the double benefit of being both a faith-based and community-based project.

"We've found it one of the most exciting and charitable ventures we've been in and a pretty remarkable success," he said.

A member of Zion United Church of Christ in Waukon, Prestemon also points to the cooperation among different churches as an attractive part of the work.

"It's been such a wonderful ecumenical experience," he said, explaining that every monthly meeting has at least 15 to 20 people showing up from Catholic, Lutheran, United Church of Christ and other participating churches. "Everyone's excited about the project, everyone's enthused -- so we don't have to twist arms to get things done -- the whole group is willing to do their part, which makes it go that way without a lot of effort."

Dennis Byrnes, a parishioner at St. Mary's Parish in Hanover, with a 200-acre farm in the Hanover area, has been working with Corner of Hope since 2006. Each year, he said, he had donated some of his own land to the project.

"It so happened I rented a farm from my neighbor and told (the Corner of Hope organizers) I would give them seven acres" for the project, he said. Altogether, he said, Corner of Hope harvests close to 50 acres for world hunger.

With seven children and 19 grandchildren, Byrnes sees Corner of Hope as his response to an issue which hits home -- world hunger.

"When my grandchildren visit and they're hungry, you feed them," he said. "So you see the satisfaction on their faces. These children are no different from children in Saudi Arabia or Guatemala, or anywhere else in the world. I think it's just terrible that a young child goes without food. This ... was the driving factor for me in joining Corner of Hope."

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