Johnston Group created the Advisor Charitable Match Program to team up with our advisors across the country who are supporting community initiatives that make a difference.
When people around the world are going hungry, it’s hard to watch food go to waste. Yet, good, locally grown food that “isn’t the most beautiful looking” is often left on our store shelves and thrown away, filling landfills instead of people’s stomachs.
The Prairie Gleaners Society is a volunteer organization created to solve both these problems at once. They “glean” nutritious soup mixes from what would otherwise be wasted vegetables to help feed people in need.
“I thought the idea was just ingenious,” says JoAnne Letkeman, an advisor in Medicine Hat, AB. “I love the fact that it wasn’t filling up our landfills and there was so much of it that it could be put to something great.”
Since 2009, local grocers and growers have been happy to donate their unsold food to Prairie Gleaners. In 2022 alone, Prairie Gleaners reported receiving 278,777 kg of produce. The vegetables are cleaned, cut, and dehydrated to make a dry soup mix, giving them a longer shelf life and making them easier to ship to those in need across the globe.
“It feels wonderful to help an organization further their goal of feeding hungry people,” says Letkeman. “Who doesn’t want to do that?”
For the people of Southern Alberta, Prairie Gleaners is a welcoming place where just about anyone, from Girl Guides to retirees, can walk in, grab a utensil, and spend the morning changing the lives of hundreds of hungry people, all by doing something as simple as chopping vegetables. And, as volunteers chat and work together to help feed the world, they’re building friendships and a deeper sense of community.
The organization provides nutritious meals to thousands of people around the globe, with almost five million cups of dehydrated soup mix shipped to communities in countries like Ukraine, Burundi, Cuba, and Moldova in 2023.
This year Letkeman decided to make an additional donation to the Prairie Gleaners Society. JoAnne Letkeman is a local advisor with Brightan Financial Strategies Inc., offering Chambers Plan group insurance. The Plan’s administrator, Johnston Group, was excited to help share Letkeman’s story and match her contribution through their Advisor Charitable Match Program, which is designed to support charitable organizations that have a direct impact on communities.
Working full time, Letkeman says she’s happy she can help financially and is proud to see so many community members volunteer. “You need a mix of both to make a good system work.”
Monetary contributions help the organization maintain its warehouse and equipment and will prepare the way for four new vegetable dehydrators. Along with funds and produce donations, Prairie Gleaners always welcomes workplaces, church groups, and schools to come in as a team-building exercise and volunteer to process vegetables.
“I challenge people to get involved with the community organizations they’re passionate about,” says Letkeman.
