Thursday, February 1, 2018

Comments for a Cause - The Do More Agriculture Foundation

Comments for a Cause - The Do More Agriculture Foundation
It's the 1st of February and time to introduce my new Comments for a Cause recipient.  But before I share about February's organization, I need to recap January's cause, Quilts of Honor.  In the month of January I had a total of 45 comments, creating a donation of $22.50 to help provide "quilted hugs of gratitude" to veterans and warriors across the nation.  As a member of a military family, I want to especially thank everyone for their comments and interest in January's Comments for a Cause program.

I'm excited to highlight a new organization that is aiming to help farmers called The Do More Agriculture Foundation in February.  I am donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog to help their efforts.

Comments for a Cause - The Do More Agriculture Foundation, championing mental well-being for all Canadian producers

The Do More Agriculture Foundation is a non-profit organization focusing on mental health in agriculture across Canada and was started on January 30, 2018.  The four founders, Kim Keller, Lesley Kelly, Himanshu Singh and Kirk Muyres saw a need to build awareness about mental health in agriculture and provide support and resources to those impacted.

Mental health is a huge issue for all communities, including those in agriculture.  Farmers are known to be hard workers, resilient, independent and private.  While all those traits can be good, they also can become barriers for speaking up and seeking help.

Farming can be a stressful job.  It is physically and emotionally demanding as farmers usually live where they work and have a hard time ever "leaving the office".  Farmers work from sunrise to sunset (and sometimes longer) and have jobs that require they are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  Farmers take pride in their land, animals, families and communities, and can feel the weight of providing for all them, during good and bad times in the farm economy.

Do More Ag is focusing on "creating awareness about mental health in agriculture and breaking the stigma that currently exists while building a community of support and resources for those impacted and affected."  Farmers don't have to feel alone or that they are letting anyone down.  Instead, they have an entire industry behind them, supporting them.

Help me give best wishes to this new foundation as they work hard to make changes in mental health for farmers.  I hope that they get so much support they expand to helping farmers in the United States too.  Remember to Comment for a Cause all month long to "do more" and help spread awareness of mental health in agriculture.

19 comments:

  1. What a wonderful endeavor! Having been raised on a farm and married to a farmer I have seen the need!

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    1. There is a huge need and thanks to group like this, farmers are actually starting to talk about it!

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  2. Such an important conversation to have! Let's make it ok to talk to each other and not just cowboy up in silence all the time!

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    1. Exactly! Step one is talking about and then what I think might be the hardest part is step two - taking time to actually do something about it.

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  3. What a great organization. It is definitely important to take care of yourself... even if that is hard to do sometimes!

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    1. Exactly! You can't take care of others if you aren't taking care of yourself.

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  4. Thanks for supporting The Do More Ag Foundation, Val!

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  5. Replies
    1. So excited to see what Do More Ag can accomplish!

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  6. What a great cause, Val. You always come up with amazing organizations that I have not heard of and I love what this one does. Thank you for highlighting this one this month --they sound like they do amazing work. Will try to stop by a bit more often to comment!!!!

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  7. This is a great organization! Hopefully we'll do the same in the US! Such an important issue!

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  8. We're excited to see so much conversation happening around the wellbeing of you, our producers. You'll be happy to learn that legislations is moving quickly in Washington state and we're hearing legislation is being written at the federal level too.

    In case there is anyone who hasn't read our reporting on it - here's the link:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers

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  9. Replies
    1. I'm happy to spread awareness of the program and issue!

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