Abbotsford Gleanings

We had a cloudy, wet and windy start to the week. By Thursday the skies cleared and we had lots of sunshine which has been rare this month.

This work week has been similiar to the past two weeks. We processed peppers, tomatoes and onions. Although we did not do any onions, others did and we were not immune to the vapours and the teary eyes because with working indoors the whole place filled with the aroma.

A new experience on Wednesday was  seeing and being part of the process of the first soup mixing and packaging for this season. Having a school group join us made it possible to have enough extra hands to mix and bag. Although it was only about an hour and a half we experienced the hectic pace of assembly line scooping and passing along each bucket at a rate of about one every second. Once all the product is in the bucket it gets emptied into a bag, sealed and boxed ready to be shipped. They have a well engineered but low tech way of doing this.

 The mixing bucket galley supported by the barrels from which the ingredients are scooped.

 The fellow at the end passes the buckets across to the other half of the assembly line. Note the blurred bucket as it gets passed down the line.

 This is one of three bagging stations.

 The new bag sealer speeds up this part of the process.

A Few Current Gleaner Facts (taken from Fraser Valley Gleaners Newsletter)
Servings produced per volunteer per hour: 150
Cost/serving to produce: 5 cents
Average # of volunteers per day = 55+
Servings processed and made ready for shipping 2014: 12 million
Tonnes of produce processed in 2014: 900 tonnes
Total volunteer hours in 2014: 51,000 hrs.
Average dryer load times: 8-10 hrs.
Number of recipient countries in 2014: 25

 Two weeks ago Annette met Sindy, another volunteer who told us her mother had been a recipient of the Gleaners soup mix in Paraguay years ago. So she was very happy to help here at this organization. While working with her she invited us to Windsor Greenhouses where she works part-time, to browse through their selection of poinsettias ranging from the unique to the more traditional varieties.