Farm It Forward won the Community Wellbeing Award
A community group entrenched in Saskatchewan’s ag community received recognition for its efforts.
Farm It Forward in Mossbank recently won the Community Wellbeing Award, which recognizes exceptional community commitment, from the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association.
“It’s never the goal to get an award but it is nice to know people see the work you’re doing to support your community and think you deserve to be honoured for it,” Clint Shkuratoff, chair of Farm It Forward and a retired farmer from the area, told Farms.com.
The award comes with a $1,000 prize, which Shkuratoff says will be put towards a new artificial ice plant for the community rink.
The organization started in 2017 with group of farmers in Mossbank discussing ways to support the community through agriculture.
And they wanted to make a big impact.
“There were some things in the community that were bigger than selling raffle tickets,” said Shkuratoff, who has been involved with Farm It Forward since 2020. “Boards at the hockey rink can be $10,000, or the Furrows and Faith retirement home needs work.”
Other parts of the community Farm It Forward has contributed to include a walking path around town, minor hockey programs, the local school, and a golf course.
Farm It Forward raises money through crop harvests.
Farmers donate land, equipment, fuel, and time. Businesses chip in with discounted inputs.
“We’ve had anywhere from one quarter section to about 640 acres,” Shkuratoff said. “It really speaks to how tight knit the farming community is here because you’ll see the person who sold you the seed around town and they’ll ask how the crop is coming along.”
The profits from the harvests are deposited into an organization bank account.
Money is released when proper due diligence has been done.
“We just want to make sure there’s merit to what’s being asked for,” Shkuratoff said.