This year's Heritage Harvest Growing Project at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum helped out some worthwhile causes.

$18,000 was raised to help support the museum and the Canadian Food Grain Bank.

Helmut Neufeld is the chairman of the committee. He explains what makes this event so special.

"Every time we grow a cereal crop, we harvest that crop with heritage equipment like old combines," says Neufeld. "It's a unique opportunity for people to come to see the old equipment like threshing machines and combines working."

Jake Hamm, is a volunteer with the Canadian Food Grains Bank and a participant with the Austin museum.

"This year we had canola seeded into fairly dry conditions, and for a while, the crop didn't look very promising at all. When all was said and done, we harvested a good crop, and we managed to get just about double the income for the museum that we used to have from the land before we started the growing project, plus the half share for the Canadian Food Grains Bank."

The federal government matched the donation for the museum fund 2:1, so they ended up with 13,500 for the museum's endowment fund. Neufeld outlines how the government matched the food bank donation.

"In the food grain banks case, the federal government puts in 4 dollars for every dollar that we raise. That 9000 dollars ended up being 45,000 dollars, That feeds about 3000 people per day. That's a pretty impressive number."

This an annual event, and they are eager for next year's crop.