He played a vital role in the establishment of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). Building on the vision of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the MCC Food Bank was expanded and reorganized in 1983 to include 13 other member church agencies and the CFGB was formed. As the CFGB’s first executive director (1983-1990), he helped it become one of the world’s largest private food-aid providers dedicated to famine relief and ending world hunger. This involved his successful negotiations with the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), to allow farmers to deliver and donate grain outside of the quota system to CWB handling facilities, and with the Canadian International Development Agency, to agree to match every CFGB donation on a four-to-one basis. A mark of the solid foundation he developed, by 2005 the CFGB had provided more than 944,000 tons of food to more than 68 countries.
