Marty Trim is letting a Syrian family farm on about six acres of his land

By Diego Flammini

Staff Writer

Farms.com

An Alberta farmer is letting other families use his land to make a better life for themselves.

Marty Trim, who produces hay near Calgary, has donated about six acres of land to two Syrian refugee families to help them build a foundation in Canada.

Trim contacted the Calgary Immigrant Support Society about six months ago after hearing about Abdullah Chybil, owner of Sole to Soul Footwear, donating about two acres of land to Mohamed Eldaher in 2016.

Eldaher has produced enough lettuce since then to donate about 800 pounds of it to the Calgary Food Bank.

Trim looked around at his own farm and decided he wanted to help others as well.

“I had a piece of land that I wasn’t doing anything with, just cropping it for hay, and I felt it wasn’t enough,” Trim told CityNews Sunday. “Other people could use the benefit from it.”

One family is using their plot of land to produce vegetables while the other is growing flowers for commercial use.

Despite a language barrier at times, Trim and his new farmer colleagues are working together nicely.

“These people want to work (and) they’re delightful,” he told CityNews. “I have made great friends with most of these great people that I’ve met.”

And for some of the new producers, Trim’s donation allows them to carry on a family lineage of farmers.

“All of my family are farmers,” Ibrahim, one of the Syrian farmers on Trim’s land, told CityNews. “My grandfather, my father, my brother and (now) me.”

Individuals are taking to social media to post messages of appreciation to Trim.

“Well done Marty! You have shown us what being a Canadian is all about,” Mike Ross wrote on Twitter yesterday.

“Farmers help farmers. Fantastic!” Vasile Klaassen posted on Twitter.

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