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 Grains Bank.

Helmut Neufeld is the chairman of the committee and 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."

They ended up with $13,500 for the museum's endowment fund after being matched through various government organizations. Neufeld explains how the government matched the food bank donation.

"In the food grains banks case, the federal government puts in $4:00 for every $1.00 that we raise. That $9,000 ended up being $45,000. That feeds about 3,000 people per day. That's a pretty impressive number."

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