Egg Farmers of Ontario donate $50,000 to Farm & Food Care Foundation

April 6, 2015 – To celebrate its 50^th anniversary, Egg Farmers of Ontario (EFO) has donated $50,000 to the Farm & Food Care Foundation. The money will help the Farm & Food Care Foundation expand its work nationally with the goal to build public trust in food and farming. 

The presentation was made as part of EFO’s annual convention which celebrated the organization and egg farmers’ achievements. In making the donation, Scott Graham, chair of Egg Farmers of Ontario said that the donation holds a lot of significance to both organizations. 

Said Graham, “It was Jim Johnstone, an egg farmer and former EFO chair that had the vision to help establish the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) in 1987. He saw the value in the coalition approach that expanded even broader with the formation of Farm & Food Care Ontario in 2012.” 

Graham continued, “Jim Johnstone was passionate about the need for all types of farmers to tell their stories to the public and he saw enormous value in a coalition-approach to communicating about food and farming long before many others did. He was a true leader and a trail blazer.” 

Ian McKillop, an egg farmer and vice chairman of the Farm & Food Care Foundation, accepted the cheque and said that the donation was an excellent demonstration of the EFO meeting’s theme of “Past, Present and Future”.

Said McKillop, “This donation is really a celebration of the leadership, commitment and spirit of cooperation that egg farmers and EFO have demonstrated to the important work of communicating about farming for so many years.” 

McKillop said EFO has been a strong champion of OFAC and Farm & Food Care Ontario for more than 25 years, as a great complement to their egg farming specific communications. Now he continued, EFO is investing in the next level, by helping the Farm & Food Care Foundation launch programming across Canada. The national charity will provide a proactive, coalition approach for building public trust in food and farming in Canada, and extend the provincial efforts of groups like Farm & Food Care Ontario and Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan. 

Farmers, organizations, and individuals who work in the sector with a passion for food and farming can invest in this work and add to this coalition effort by donating to the Farm & Food Care Foundation. Find out more at www.farmcarefoundation.ca.