In mid-summer, due to distressing weather conditions, the prospect for the 30 acres of corn that make up the 2023 Polo Growing Project appeared bleak. But at harvest in mid-October, the results were no less than astonishing, the crop yielding an average of 247.5 bushels per acre. Net proceeds for the project stand at $45,500, a notch above last year’s near-record earnings of $45,000.
The Growing Hope Globally project in northern Virginia includes five Church of the Brethren congregations that are working with the organization to grow crops on 10 acres of farm property in Midland, Va., and then donate the income from the sale of the crops to food security and hunger relief.
Jeff Boshart has resigned as manager of the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) effective Dec. 29. He has held the position, which includes managing the GFI fund as well as the Emerging Global Mission Fund, for more than 11 years, since March 2012.
Grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) are supporting food distribution to the Hispanic community in Lancaster, Pa., agriculture micro-projects by the Church of the Brethren in Venezuela, a community garden project of the Church of the Brethren in Spain, and sustainable agriculture education in Burundi.
The Global Food Initiative (GFI) of the Church of the Brethren has given a number of grants in recent weeks, in order to support a Soybean Value Chain project in Nigeria, a church-based community gardening effort in Ecuador, a work-study opportunity in Ecuador for trainees from Venezuela, a vegetable production workshop in Uganda, and a community garden in North Carolina.
Grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) are supporting the attendance of three Church of the Brethren leaders at a symposium on sustainable agriculture and appropriate technologies in Tanzania, repair of a vehicle owned by the agriculture department of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), and Capstone 118’s outreach in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.
The latest round of grants from the Global Food Initiative (GFI) have been given to ministries of Churches of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for the Seed Projects; Rwanda, for purchase of a grain mill; and Venezuela, for agriculture micro-projects. For more about the GFI and to contribute financially to these grants, go to www.brethren.org/gfi.
Brethren Disaster Ministries is monitoring the deadly earthquake that struck in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 22. Staff are monitoring an expanding crisis in the horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya) where an extreme drought, soaring food prices, and high fuel costs are adding to a massive humanitarian crisis.
of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI). Recently, allocations have been made in support of an agricultural initiative of L’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti), a pig project of Eglise des Freres au Congo (the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC), an urban poultry and vegetable garden project in Honduras, and a goat herd at Capstone 118 in New Orleans.
has been tending to their community garden for about five years now, thanks to the original initiative of former pastor Belita Mitchell. The current garden coordinator, Waneta Benson, cites this year as the best year yet!
