Sunflower selfies encouraged, helping raise funds for food grains bank

A farm just outside of MacGregor, Man. has found an interesting way to raise funds and awareness for the Canadian Food Grains Bank. 

Dean Toews is one of the owners of the Toews family farm near MacGregor. 

"We have a 40-acre field we set aside every year for the food grains bank fundraising. The money earned on that field goes to Canadian Food Grains," says Toews. 

This year they had the idea of planting something new.

"Because it's located beside the highway we decided to try sunflowers this year. Knowing it's a bit of a contentious issue of people liking sunflower fields and trespassing, we are giving people permission to go onto ours."

Toews says people can come for the next week and take pictures in the field. If they want to take any sunflowers home, there is a donation box in front, and the suggested amount is $1 per sunflower. All proceeds benefit people around the world.

"They work in many different countries, I believe it's 80, and they help with food aid as well as irrigation projects and farmland. This helps farmers minimize soil erosion and therefore grow more on the same land and continue doing that for generations."

Toews family farm has partnered with the Canadian Food Grains Bank for many years. 

"I was able to go on a learning tour with them to Ethiopia in 2014. I was able to see the end result of where the funds go to work and it's encouraging that the work we're doing here makes such a difference for strangers across the ocean."