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January/February 2002 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook Inside Story Feature: Harvest of goodwill À la carte Reverberations

Harvest of Goodwill (Feature) | Canadian food firsts | Just the beer facts
Food nutrition lables get a facelift | Securing a meal | Archives
The ABCs of healthy eating | Comfort food | Dining al fresco | A taste of Paris

An icy wind makes the cornstalks dance in their golden frocks as Father Bob MacDonald blesses and thanks the group of farmers standing in a driveway outside Lancaster, in the rural tableland of Ontario’s southeast corner. Then one of the farmers, with the trademark tanned face and faded overalls, gives a circular wave in the air and says, "Gentlemen, start your machines. Let’s get this crop in."

Now, 25 acres is normally a one-combine chore. But this is not a normal harvest. On this last Saturday of October, the atmosphere is as festive as a barn raising.

Five combines roar to life. They point their sharp snouts at the far fences and begin a co-operative harvest of hope. Eleven tractors towing gravity-box trailers await the golden stream of corn. The work is carefully portioned out to make sure everybody participates.

In the towering cab of his red combine, Mackie Robertson, 55, eases the transmission into forward. He grew up on the family farm just east of Lancaster, in Bainsville. Today, he farms those same 500 acres with his son. Slight in build, he speaks with a sureness that reflects his years as a United Church lay minister. His eyes sparkle with geniality and energy. As the combine advances, he casts his mind back to an evening two years ago in a refugee camp in India’s flood-wrecked Orissa province.

"For two hours, I sat with 200 men and boys by the light of a few candles, swapping stories about farming," he says. "I said, ‘I’m simply here sharing a gift from my community, which happens to be a Christian community, with you.’ I wasn’t there to evangelize."

Behind that gift, and today’s harvest, is a unique Canadian institution: the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). It is a one-of-a-kind bank that converts Canadian generosity into deliverance from hunger and poverty in disaster-struck corners of the world. This late-October harvest, too, will be a gift to people abroad who are struggling with natural or man-made catastrophes.

(Photo by David Barbour)

For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.

Michael Clugston is a writer based in Aylmer, Que.

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