SouthGrow MNP partnership offering agri-food scholarships

By Tim Kalinowski on August 10, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

SouthGrow Regional Economic Development, in partnership with Bruce Warkentin of MNP, will be providing two scholarships worth $2,250 to students from southwestern Alberta entering the local agri-food industry.
One Agri-Food Futures Scholarship will be provided to a University of Lethbridge student and one will be provided to a Lethbridge College student.
“We are trying to encourage students in the area to stay local,” says Jim Willett, chair of SouthGrow and Mayor of the Village of Coutts. “To realize there are careers right here in southern Alberta working in the food industry. You can get an education here, and you can get a good-paying job right here. So it’s a win-win.”
Willett says unprecedented expansion of the agri-food and food-processing industry in the region has created a need for more highly trained workers to fulfill the growth pressures associated with that expansion.
“The industry is growing by leaps and bounds,” he says. “This agri-food corridor we got going along Highway 3 in this Taber and Lethbridge region is expanding. So every time you do that, you create a need for more people. If you expand your plant, you have got to have the people that know what they’re doing to help you with that expansion.”
Willett hopes the annual scholarship funding sends a strong message to local young people thinking about potentially entering the agri-food industry.
“It’s exciting times for our area,” he states. “It’s a good news story. We need to do more to be emphasizing the good things that are going on in our part of the world. We are helping to feed the world. We are helping to feed Canada. And that’s an exciting and very positive thing.”
For more information on the SouthGrow-MNP Agri-Food Futures Scholarship visit http://www.southgrow.com.
Deadline to apply is Aug. 23.

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