John Nooyen (left), AGRIS Co-operative board President and Jim Anderson (middle), AGRIS ownership committee chair, presents a donation to Harvest Hands. Jim and Jacintha Collins, founders, (right), accept the donation on behalf of Harvest Hands. (Photo courtesy of AGRIS Co-operative)

A farming supply company based in Chatham-Kent is giving back to the communities its serves this holiday season.

AGRIS Co-operative Ltd., which has its central office in Chatham, has donated $15,000 in support of southwestern Ontario’s food banks.

“We unanimously wanted to continue giving back to the communities where we farm, work and raise our families,” said AGRIS Board President John Nooyen in a news release. “This year again, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew people are still having a tough time feeding their families, and we wanted to continue to help.”

The donation has been given to Harvest Hands, which distributes food supplies to food banks across the province. Harvest Hands also rescues surplus food from retailers, bakers and growers to be redistributed to families throughout southwestern Ontario.

AGRIS is a farmer-owned grain marketing and farm-input supply company that serves more than 1,000 farmer-owners in Essex, Kent, Elgin, Middlesex and Lambton counties.