MCC volunteers’ can-do attitude Annual meat canning drive set for Feb. 2-5

  • January 18, 2010
  • 657
                        
by davemast Last year more than 100 volunteer meat canners from across the area helped celebrate Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) 61st year of providing nutritional meat to countries around the world through MCC’s annual meat canning drive. This year, there will need to be even more. The increase in volunteers is due to the increase in days the event will take place, as well as a bump in the amount of turkey being canned during the event, which will see the MCC truck roll in from Feb. 2-5. The local MCC meat canning committee had the opportunity to create an additional day when another meat canning site decided not to participate this year. The extra day means more time to can, which resulted in the committee’s decision to add an additional 2,000 pounds of turkey to the meat canning schedule. “I think this is the first time in recent history that we have gone to four days,” said Dwight Shoup, Tuscarawas/Holmes County MCC Meat Canning board member. “It’s been three as long as I can remember. When one of the other canning sites quit, it created a little bit of leeway for the MCC crew to come in a day earlier, so we figured why not take the opportunity to make ours four days long?” By going to four days, it did allow the MCC committee to start out their meat canning days at 6 a.m., rather than the old time of 5 a.m., a much-enjoyed relief for many volunteers. However, whenever you add more meat, you will naturally have to add more cans, more boxes, and more shipping costs, as well as more volunteers. “Going from 15 tons of meat to 16 tons isn’t a massive jump in the overall amount, but by adding the fourth day, it will open up a lot of chances for people to volunteer,” said Shoup. “We’re hoping that the shorter days will help people out because it isn’t quite so early.” Even if people can’t volunteer their time, the added expenses of the extra turkey, cans, boxes and shipping will add considerably to the overall cost of the project, which is normally around $70,000. Shoup said that additional volunteers will be needed. In the past, the canners worked with a very different meat. Beef was the name of the game for nearly six decades. However, when MCC went to turkey three years ago, it made a difference in the approach MCC took during its several months of traversing the Eastern to Midwest United States. Shoup said that the response they received from volunteers when they switched from beef to turkey was a positive one, as there is far less mess and less hassle, and the volunteers seemed to like working with the turkey much better. It also enabled the Holmes County branch of the meat canning mission to expand their giving in terms of pounds of meat and cans. As has been the case, many of the old guard, canners who have been volunteering their time for decades, are lining up to help again this year. Shoup said that time slots are filling up, but there are still ample opportunities for volunteers to sign up, either individually or as a group. “We’re always looking for good volunteers,” said Shoup. “It makes it more enjoyable when groups come in, because they are more familiar with each other. We will schedule any size groups who would like to volunteer their time, and we have a number of different jobs people can do to help out. There’s something for everyone.” MCC’s mobile meat canning crew runs its operation from December through April. The meat canning season annually yielded upwards of a half million pounds of beef, and now turkey, with the cans of meat being shipped around the world to feed the hungry. Each year since 1946, MCC has sent out a mobile meat canner that MCC workers and volunteers use to preserve hundreds of thousands of cans of meat for communities in need across the globe. This year, a four-person crew will visit 13 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces during the canning season, which runs from October through April. This year’s canning crew includes George Wieler Jr., of Wheatley, Ontario.; Peter Reimer, of Tolstoi, Manitoba, Steven Bricker, of Chambersburg, Pa.; and Ryun Lawrence of Goessel, Kan. If you would like to volunteer for the meat canning, contact Edwin Weaver at 330-893-9412, ext. 1. Financial donations may be made to MCC Meat Canning and sent to: P.O. Box 66, Berlin 44610.


Loading next article...

End of content

No more pages to load