Nestled among rolling hills and rural back roads southwest of Puslinch Township, something special is happening at the Ontario Christian Gleaners plant.
For the past two years volunteers have been cleaning, chopping, drying and packaging surplus Ontario produce – 30,000 pounds per week of it – and shipping it to foreign countries to be used to make vegetable soup for the poor and less fortunate.
“We have a lot of produce here that goes to waste,” said gleaners plant manager Shelley Stone.
About 250 people from within a 45 minute radius – including many from Well–ington County – volunteer on a regular basis, although Stone estimated about 1,000 people are involved in the gleaners entire network of volunteers, produce donors and other helpers.
Roughly 40 volunteers ar–rive every weekday, working from 8:30am until noon, and producing 25,000 to 30,000 servings of soup daily.
To date, through partnerships with various missionary groups and charitable organi–zations, the soup has been shipped to about 30 countries. Stone estimated that by the end of the year, the gleaners will have produced over four million servings of vegetable soup.
“We feed the poor. That’s the one thing we do – and we do it well,” Stone said.
Considering the plant began production in September of 2008, the accomplishments of the Ontario Christian Gleaners (OCG) are quite extraordinary.
How it began
The term “gleaning,” often described as the act of collecting leftover crops from fields after they have been harvested, has Biblical origins. But today, gleaners can feed the hungry by gleaning produce that may be too large or small, slightly discoloured, blemished or too close to the expiry date.
The idea for the OCG, Stone explained, came from the Okanagan Gleaners and Fraser Valley Gleaners in British Columbia, which have been in operation for over a decade.
In the summer of 2004, about 15 people crammed into two vans, drove all the way out to see the facilities, volunteered for a week and drove back. From there, they formed a board of directors, members registered as a charitable organization, started fundraising and began looking for a suitable location.
The land on Morrison Road, south of Cambridge, was donated to the cause, as was much of the time and material used for the building.
Various churches donated money from the start, and even a company in Montreal donated a corn dryer, which was then converted by OCG to suit its needs, which include drying carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, asparagus and potatoes for soup, as well as various fruits for snacks.
“We run entirely on donations,” Stone noted. She explained the OCG receives no government funding to help meet its $200,000 annual budget.
“We have learned a lot in two years,” said Stone, the OCG’s only full-time paid employee. The organization also employs two part-time staff members, but the rest are unpaid.
The volunteers
“We have such good people,” Stone said, noting many come from within Wellington County, including places like Fergus and nearby Puslinch Township.
Volunteers perform tasks ranging from cleaning and cutting produce, to operating the chopping machine, fork lift, and dryer, to driving the OCG’s delivery truck for pick-ups or drop-offs.
They range in age from teenagers (at least 15 years of age) to seniors – Stone calls one 90-year-old volunteer a “real inspiration to others” – and include all demographics and 15 different religious denominations, although there are some with no faith affiliation at all.
Neville Rainford, who is originally from Jamaica, heard about the gleaners through his church in Kitchener.
“We thought it was such a fantastic idea – to do something practical to help the poor,” said Rainford, who now volunteers with his wife.
But Stone said the appeal of volunteering is about more than just benevolence.
“I love the concept of this. It’s everything I believe in under one roof,” Stone said.
She explained in addition to feeding the poor, she likes that people from all walks of life are working together towards one common goal and that the operation is preventing good food from being thrown out.
“It just makes so much sense,” she said.
The food
Produce arrives at OCG from farmers, food distribution centres, food processing companies and greenhouse vegetable growers.
During the winter months, when considerably less Ontario fruits and vegetables are available, Stone works hard to source other produce, which is often imported.
“We have never missed a day. It’s amazing,” she said. “We are a year-round operation.”
She noted the gleaners hope to process a lot of kale this winter, and hints local growers could provide a real boost to the operation through the donation of the leafy cabbage, which can be harvested into January.
Stone is blown away by the generosity of local farmers, many of whom come in to volunteer during the winter.
“We love those farmers; they can do everything,” she said with a smile.
She adds the gleaners are always looking for soup beans and barley, if local growers have any to spare.
The recipients
The OCG donates its dried food products to reputable re–lief, charitable and development organizations, as well as missionary teams, which then distribute the products to locations throughout the world, primarily in Central America Africa and eastern Europe.
“We’re about relief and we’re about development,” Stone said.
Organizations hoping to distribute the OCG goods are required to file out applications at www.ontariogleaners.org. They also have to submit an audited financial statement and comply with other requirements in order to be chosen by the committee in charge of picking the final destination for the food.
“We owe that to our donors and our volunteers,” Stone said of the stringent selection process. “We’re very careful about who gets chosen.”
On top of the application process, every organization chosen to receive OCG food is required to report back on the experience, including photos and/or videos of the recipients receiving the goods. That helps add another layer of accountability and, perhaps more im–portantly, it allows volunteers to see the difference they make in others’ lives.
“That’s why people show up; when they hear the story firsthand and see the pictures it’s cool,” said Stone.
“We get the greatest reports from the other end … it’s pretty moving. It’s amazing to hear from them.”
Volunteer Terry Gray has seen the reaction of grateful children personally. The Kitchener resident has thrice travelled to Burkina Faso in west Africa with the Careforce International relief organization and delivered the soup mix to 455 very hungry and needy children.
“It’s a life changing experience, it really is,” Gray said.
Stone added children are the most common recipients of the OCG products, but the food is given to anyone in need. The gleaners have already shipped 2.5 million servings of the soup mix to Haiti since the devastating earthquake there earlier this year.
Mostly, the food is consumed very quickly by recipients, who are obviously in great need. But Stone says more often than not they spend considerable time praying and giving thanks to those who helped provide the food.
“They’re so grateful,” Stone said. As a bonus, she explained, many use the pails in which the soup mix bags are shipped to collect water.
“The pail is a highly valued item [in Third World countries],” she added.
Making a difference
The gleaners have only been in operation for two years, and actually shipping out products for just 18 months.
“We’re still learning and we’re still forming partnerships,” Stone said.
Maybe so, but the operation is clearly making a difference already. The gleaners expect to expand in the coming years and Stone is hopeful others may see the work they’re doing and decide to start a similar operation elsewhere throughout the province, the nation and beyond.
And though there are “people from all over the world” coming through the building – either on a tour or to share stories of thankful recipients – she feels there is more work to be done to get the word out about the gleaners’ work.
In the meantime, volunteers continue to selflessly donate their time to make a difference – one serving of soup at a time – for total strangers living on the other side of the world.
In fact, a shipment of 240,000 servings destined for Nicaragua was shipped out just this week.
“We see it as, this is how God has provided for us,” Stone said.
In that respect, every day is like Thanksgiving for the Ontario Christian Gleaners.
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Anyone wanting to book a tour, volunteer, or make a monetary or surplus food donation to the OCG should call 519-624-8245.
For more information, visit www.ontariogleaners.org.
The gleaners are also hosting open house events on Nov. 9 and 25 at 10:30am. Those interested should contact the OCG plant.
