They’re a small but mighty group based up in the Peace.
Last year, the Peace Country Gleaners grew, harvested and dehydrated about 700,000 pounds of vegetables, which were made into a soup mix distributed to organizations feeding the poor both in Canada and abroad.
“We had 11 acres of carrots and 11 acres of beets and about eight acres of potatoes,” said Kathy Friesen, the co-plant manager of the volunteer charity group. “We had a heavy crop this year.”
The vegetables are all grown on Friesen’s land, with her husband, Henry, leading the operation.
The growing, harvesting and processing of the vegetables is all done by volunteers. Friesen estimates the work takes about 3,000 hours.
But there are lots of willing hands in the community of La Crete. For example, about 150 people came out to weed the beets, a task they accomplished in two hours.
Still, it’s a massive undertaking.
Harvesting began in mid-September and it’s expected it will be the end of March before the processing and dehydrating is complete.
“We’re actually over half done already,” Friesen said earlier this month. “We have very close to 400,000 pounds of carrots, and they’re all dried. We’re working with the beets right now. After the beets, we’ll be doing the potatoes.
Peace Country Gleaners was formed after the Friesens volunteered with the Okanagan Gleaners in Oliver, B.C. for four winters. When they made the 1,600-kilometre trip, the couple would take potatoes they had grown that year. But they decided it would make more sense if they dehydrated them first.
“In the spring of 2012, we set up a meeting to see if there was enough interest,” she said. “We just started the way Mennonites do, and we got right to it.”
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A committee was formed and things quickly started to happen. In year one, a member of their newly formed group built tables and stools, and the next summer, group members started building their processing facility, a large building with a warehouse and an area for chopping and dehydrating vegetables, which is largely mechanized but also requires a lot of human labour.
Each year, Kathy, Henry and several other volunteers take the dehydrated vegetables — four big truckloads — to Oliver, where they become part of a dry soup mix.
“We go out there and help them mix it,” said Friesen. “One package has about 15 cups of dried vegetables. That makes 100 cups of soup.”
By the end of the Friesens’ two-week stay, the Okanagan Gleaners will have packaged about four million servings of soup. That group will then send soup packages to Christian organizations working in places such as Haiti, Burundi, Belize, the Ukraine and the Solomon Islands. The group also distributes soup mixes to charities in Canada.
The Peace Country Gleaners operates entirely on donations — from individuals, groups and corporations. It became a registered charity in 2014, and people can now donate online at peacecountrygleaners.ca) — but some supporters still come by to drop off cheques.
This past year was not only a big one for growing but for garnering support. One of their committee members helped bump up their fundraising efforts and the group was able to expand its building by 3,600 square feet.
“We bought a tractor and all kinds of equipment,” said Friesen. “We spent a lot of money this summer and we have money in the bank.”
And more and more people are volunteering.
“When we started at the beginning, it was just four of us,” she said. “Now we are in the 20s and 30s and we are looking at getting a bigger dryer, because we have enough people to help us.”
And support for the work they do is growing, too.
“This last year has just seemed to open people’s eyes and they just come and donate,” she said.
