By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Okanagan Gleaners celebrated their 30th anniversary on Saturday (Sept. 14) with nearly 100 supporters and volunteers turning out for a barbecue, live music, lucky draw and fellowship.
The non-profit society was founded in the autumn of 1994 by a small group of Christian believers in the South Okanagan Valley, out of a growing concern for the hungry people of the world.
In a brief history of the Okanagan Gleaners President Lex Haagen said fruit and vegetable prices in the Okanagan were sorely depressed at the time and the founders saw food being wasted, un-harvested in the fields and orchards.
“Confronted daily by media images of people starving in other countries they felt a responsibility to salvage this God-given abundance of food,” he related.
“Thus the vision for Okanagan Gleaners was born. With God’s leading they could save the surplus food and send it to the poor and needy. The gift of food would help extend the hands of missionaries reaching out to a hungry and dying world.”
Roly Russell, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen expressed “enormous gratitude for what you do both here and abroad.”
With a local orchard offering a small acreage (for $439,000) including an old 1920s-era tobacco drying barn – which until the new 465 sqm. (5,000 sqft.) warehouse was built last year – served as the main processing facility for 29 of the 30 years of its existence, and the venture was off and running with production beginning in 1996.
The Gleaners produce dried soup mix from mainly dried vegetable product that can include cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, beans, peas, split peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnips, eggplant, zucchini, pot barley, split peas, lentils, potatoes and salt. In addition, Okanagan Gleaners produces dehydrated apple and pear chips.
These dried goods are then packaged, boxed, packed on pallets and sent all over the world where there are humanitarian crises. Current production averages over six million servings per year and since 1996 over 120 million servings have been shipped and distributed globally.
Haagen also paid tribute to the scores of volunteers who make this unique charitable organization work. The Gleaners now exist in other places as well, including Ontario and more recently Manitoba along with two outfits in the US. He noted that these other Gleaners basically operate off the same model as the Okanagan Gleaners.
And Haagen also thanked the suppliers who continue to donate vital raw materials without which there would be no soup mixes.
Laura Allan from Shelters International was also on hand and related the importance of the soup mixes for the people of Ukraine where she works on the ground to help the beleaguered population.
On hand for the celebration was Richard Cannings, MP for the South Okanagan–West Kootenay and Roly Russell, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen.
Cannings reflected on his days as a youth working in a Penticton orchard, adding that the work the Gleaners do is inspiring. “To hear the growth of this across the country, the continent from here in Oliver, that’s a really wonderful story to just see what the vision and the work of a few people have turned into to help the people of the world. Congratulations!”
Russell also noted the importance of the work done by the Gleaners. “I have an enormous amount of appreciation for the Gleaners and the many, many volunteers involved.
“I know there’s some struggles in terms of accessing funding from the provincial government and so on. We will keep on that fight and hopefully open some more doors, but again, enormous gratitude for what you do both here and abroad.”
Laura Allan from Shelters International was also on hand and related the importance of the soup mixes for the people of Ukraine where she works on the ground to help the beleaguered population.
Pallets of soup mixes are ready to be shipped to Ukraine.
She noted that the soup mixes were literally keeping seniors alive as they shelter in basements from the ongoing bombardment by Russian forces. “They can’t go to a store because there’s missiles reigning down on them. “If the sky is clear, they could die. They have to hide so, because of the Okanagan Gleaners, they can survive another day.”
Allan presented a cloth embroidered with the Lord’s Prayer in Ukrainian from one of the villages she was working in as a thank you to the Gleaners from the village residents.
The Okanagan Gleaners also made a call for volunteers to join their organization and also for both produce and financial donations. More information on donating can be found on their website.
