Harvest of Hope, a local growing project of Foods Resource Bank, completed its eleventh year of raising funds to alleviate world hunger. Foods Resource Bank empowers people to support food security through smallholder agricultural development. A total of $28,000 was sent to FRB to support projects in Uganda, Peru, Guatemala and Nicaragua. In the eleven years of the local growing project $259,650.00 has been raised for Foods Resource Bank.

Churches participating were St Timothy Lutheran and Zion Lutheran of Hudson and the South Waterloo Church of the Brethren in Waterloo. Local participating farmers include BarLee Farms, Ltd., Lanehaven Farms, Inc., Rousselow Bros., Ohrt Farms, Inc., Mary Jane Boorom, and Kevin & Diane Sittig. Local business contributing were Spence Fertilizer and P & J Equipment of LaPorte City.

Foods Resource Bank was found in 1999 by a small group of farmers, churches, individuals and organizations that wanted to do something about the hunger and poverty around the world. What began as a handful of growing projects and one overseas program has grown into a large network of people and organizations dedicated to reducing global hunger through smallholder agricultural development. Today, over 200 growing projects financially support more than fifty overseas programs in over twenty-five countries. FRB has been able to support over one million people across 131 programs during the past 15 years.

The United Nations reports there are 795 million people chronically hungry today, a huge drop from 1 billion a few years ago. FRB knows that the efforts of small, sustainable development programs have had a huge impact in the reduction of hunger and malnutrition around the world. FRB is committed to community-driven development, relationships and transformational experiences. These FRB programs help people grow their own food, find solutions to water challenges, improve their soil, their income, their nutrition, their hygiene, their healthy and their future.

For more information on Foods Resource Bank, please visit foodsresourcebank.org.