Columbia Grain Spreads Holiday Cheer with Cultivating Christmas Program

December 20, 2023

It’s the holiday season and for many in Agriculture it’s a time to help those less fortunate. Helping to spread holiday cheer across our region is Columbia Grain with it's Cultivating Christmas Program.

"With Columbia Grain's Cultivating Christmas program, our employees volunteer in local programs that give back to their communities," said Amy Dunn in Chinook, MT. "It's either by time, financial contributions, toys for tots, coat drives, food bank donations or giving trees for families. Our list is really endless."

At Columbia Gran’s Camas Prairie facility in Grangeville, ID, Brandon Rehder says they’ve been helping the Marine’s with Toys for Tots that farmers are also helping with.

"We're actually in year three of our partnership with the Marines Toys for Tots," said Rehder. "It all starts with local leadership. Julie Bentley is the director of the Camas Prairie. She's a phenomenal resource to work with and a very strong leader in our community. So, when we originally took on this project we wanted to give back more than just monetarily. We provide a lot of the essentials like diapers, wipes, blankets, socks and stocking stuffers. On top of that, we have solicited our producer base. We have at Toys for Tots box that we host at our local office. So, between our producer base and our employees, we've been able to successfully fill that box every year. And it's a big team effort across the board."

Amy says helping the Senior Center in Chinook is on the list this year.

"We wanted to reach out to those who do so much in our community," said Dunn. "The local senior center actually had their funding cut this year. So, we wanted to help them by prepaying meals for members in our community on the daily, as well as a monetary donation to help in the area with any additional funds that are needed."

For more information about Columbia Grain, click here.

Source: Western Ag Network