Mountain Lake Area Relief Committee hosts MCC Mobile Meet Canner; Volunteers can meat for World Relief
Feeding “the least of these.”
The Mountain Lake Area Relief Committee is hosting the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Mobile )Meat Canner today (Thursday, November 16) and tomorrow (Friday, November 17, at the Elemendorf Christian Community, located southeast of Mountain Lake. A bevy of volunteers of all ages have been on hand to help the mobile meat canner operators can meat by packing meat into cans, pasting labels on cans and packaging thousands of cans into boxes which will get sent as relief aid “in the name of Christ” around the United States and the world.
Every year the MCC’s Mobile Meat Canner travels across the United States and Canada, meeting volunteers who prepare cans of turkey, beef, chicken and pork to be sent around the world. Over 30,000 people a year fill, weigh, wash and label every can.
Local Coordinator Ramont Harder Schrock notes that assistance from Mountain Lake Public High School’s Student Council members, along with students from Mountain Lake Christian and Elmendorf, is very important in boosting the output, helping local volunteers prepare more than 8,000 cans of meat for shipment from the 20,000 pounds of turkey used for hte process..
The seven-month canning season runs from October through April, and sees the mobile meat canner making stops in 30 communities throughout Ohio, Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, as well as Ontario and Manitoba in Canada.
The finished cans are shipped for distribution to MCC partner organizations in Haiti, Ethiopia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Uganda Zambia, Canada, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) – providing protein and other important nutrients to supplement meals when meat is hard to purchase locally.
All told, 579,653 pounds of canned meat was shipped last year to Burundi, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea), Ukraine and the United States.
MCC’s meat canning program has been operating since 1946, when it was part of the relief effort of war torn countries of Europe. Its purpose is to provide safe, nourishing food in settings affected by war, disaster and malnutrition.
A LOOK AT the MCC Mobile Meat Canner. (Photo courtesy of MCC)
APPROXIMATELY 6,000 CANS of Food For Relief will be packaged during the two days the MCC Mobile Meat Canner is in Mountain Lake.
ARNOLD HARDER SENDS the turkey thighs through the meat grinder, cutting them into 3/4″ chunks. The containers of turkey thighs are kept in a refrigerated reefer trailer as they await use.
A FULL METAL container of raw turkey chunks sits on the lip of the MCC Mobile Meat Canner, waiting for the volunteer crew to begin the canning process of packing, weighing, sealing and pressure steaming.
THE VOLUNTEER CREW is hard at work inside the MCC Mobile Canner trailer. The sterilized cans are filled with chopped turkey meat, a little salt is added, the cans are weighed, sealed and packed into metal baskets, ready to be placed in the steam pressure canner.
ELISABETH HARDER SCHROCK adds a bit more chopped turkey meat to the can to bring it to the proper weight. It’s noisy inside the meat canner trailer, so the helpers wear ear protection.
THE UNSEALED CANS then travel down the conveyor to the lidding machine. The sealed cans are then packed into a huge cylindrical metal basket. When the basket is filled with 140 cans, it is hoisted into a steam pressure canner. Assisting Michael Doerksen of Paraguay, right, member of the touring meat canner crew, are Harlan Franz, left and a young Elmendorf Christian Community resident, center.
EACH PRESSURE CANNERS reaches 246 degrees Fahrenheit in order to cook and sterilize the meat inside the sealed cans. The mobile unit feature six pressure canners.
WHEN COOKED TO the required temperature, and for the proper amount of time, the basket of cans is removed from the cooker and each can is wiped dry, labeled, stamped and boxed.
WHEN THEY COME from the steam pressure canner, the cans of meat need to be wiped dry. Above Harvery Buller gives the dish towel a workout.
PRATOOMPORN HARDER READIES the can labels for gluing.
DIANE DICK SPREADS out the can labels prior to applying the glue sealant.
THE NEXT STEP is to glue the labels on the cans. Grace Harder, above, deftly does this duty. AFTER THE LABEL is affixed, each can is sent through a counter, stamped and sent on to be packaged.
JIM LEPP SENDS the completed product down the line to be packaged.
VERN GOERING COMPLETES fills a box full of cans of meat.
ANOTHER FLAT of canned meat boxes, sealed with plastic wrap, is moved into place under the watchful eye of meat canner operator Lucas Hiebert of Goessel, Kansas, right.
THESE TWO MEN sport a lengthy history of helping can meat to send around the world in order to feed “the least of these.” At left, former local MCC meat canning coordinator, Vern Goering, and at right, the new canning “chief,” Ramont Harder Schrock.
HAPPY FACES RECEIVE the essential protein needed for growing and healthy bodies. (MCC photo)
