Contest's goal is to help put a face to farming

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario farm families can once again enter a contest to select one lucky winning family to be included in the 2014 Faces of Farming calendar.

This is the second year the contest is being held. Last year’s contest attracted 31 entries. The winners were Bob McMillan and Julie Moore and their family. The family has a hog operation in Perth County.

The winning farm family will appear on one of the calendar’s 13 pages. Crystal Mackay, executive director of Farm & Food Care Ontario, says the organization plus the calendar’s sponsors pick all the other farmers to be included.

Contest entries are due at the Farm & Food Care office in Guelph by May 31. Entrants must submit a family photo and a short, maximum 500-word essay describing their family. They must also make their primary income from agriculture.

The winning family gets a photo shoot in July, complimentary copies of the calendar and two tickets plus accommodation for the 2013 Ontario Harvest Gala and calendar launch on Oct. 24 in Guelph. Entries can be emailed to: info@farmfoodcare.org or mailed to 100 Stone Road, Suite 106, Guelph, Ontario N1G 5L3.

Farm & Food Care unveils the calendar at the gala. “The cover (page) is always a surprise,” Mackay says.

The calendar has featured the faces and stories of about 125 farmers and farm families since it was first published in 2005. It’s distributed to thousands of Ontario media, grocery retail outlets and politicians along with being sold through the Farm & Food Care office.

The calendar’s goal is to break down stereotypes of Ontario farmers and what they look like along with introducing consumers to the farmers who work 365 days a year to produce Ontario’s food, the Farm & Food Care April 29 news release says. BF