Less than a week after the Central Alberta Growing Project was able to secure some land for this year’s charity crop, we received word about the Ponoka Community Growing Project (PCGP) also looking for land, after the land they used for the past 20 years is no longer available to them.

Since the mid-90's, the PCGP has had their charity crop just north of Morningside, raising somewhere between $5-6 million for the Canadian Food Grains Bank.

This year however they need some new land, as founding member Peter Doornenball says, they are in a bit of time crunch looking for a new space to plant their charity crop of wheat, barely, or canola.

“It’s been a good run and now all of a sudden it’s to an end…all of a sudden we feel kind of lost to not have land no more, and we found out in the middle of April. We asked around for some land but it’s pretty hard to find.”

Doornenball says they are hoping to find land east or west of Ponoka, where local farmers and ranchers have always supported their efforts.

“That’s the most of our supporter basis; most of the farmers who help us out are working there. We have the support from all the chicken farmers, they also donate chicken manure for the land, so we had a good thing going for us.”

Money raised from the crop is matched by the federal government 4-1.

If you would like to assist the PCGP, you can phone Peter Doornenball at 403-783-2947, or 403-302-2545.

The founding members of the Ponoka Community Growing Project. Photo courtesy of Peter Doornenball