After two years of fundraising, Southman Gleaners begins operations in Reinfeld
Southman Gleaners fired up its equipment in Reinfeld for the first time just a few months ago, and now they’re inviting people to come learn how you can help them feed those in need around the world.
The non-profit gathers vegetables donated by local producers and dices and dehydrates them to make soup mixes that are distributed by a variety of partner Christian aid agencies, including Faith Mission and Samaritan’s Purse.
“We started production about a month and a half ago, but we’ve been at it for two years now,” shares board chair Abe Janzen, explaining a lot of legwork needed to be done before the first bag of soup made it off the production line.
The organization was inspired by similar Gleaners operations elsewhere in Canada. There are two in Alberta and three each in B.C. and Ontario.
“A gentleman from Le Crete, Alberta challenged [fellow board member] George Wieler, and so we had a meeting of about 15 people and they all thought it was a good idea,” Janzen recalls.
Southman Gleaners Inc. was officially formed as the first Manitoba Gleaners group in 2022. The founding board members spent the next few years raising funds to pay for the necessary equipment and space to work in.
“We consider ourselves a regional operation—all of southern Manitoba,” Janzen says, explaining they are a mission-minded agency inspired by Leviticus 23:22, which encourages farmers to share the bounty of their harvest with the poor.
“It also has the element of salvaging something,” he adds. “We were all taught to waste not want not. So we’re turning culled potatoes, culled vegetables into more useful products. We’re adding value so that they can be eaten.”
There is a wealth of locally-grown food that is culled every single day for not meeting grade requirements simply because they’re too big, too small, or have minor blemishes.
But it’s all still perfectly edible, Janzen stresses.
“A lot of potatoes that get culled out go to cattle farms, which is not bad, but we think feeding people should be a higher priority”
Southman Gleaners is working with numerous large-scale producers to divert these culled vegetables their way.
Each week, volunteers assess and cut off any blemishes before the produce is diced and then dehydrated.
The resulting bags of soup mix have a long shelf life and can be economically shipped wherever they’re needed.
“A bag like this should feed a hundred people a cup of soup,” shares volunteer Ike Wall, holding up a relatively small bag. “We can keep 100 people from starving with just this.”
“We dice and dehydrate about 3,000 pounds of potatoes in one day,” he adds. “So that makes a lot of meals.”
Facility manager Richard Reimer, who oversees the operation alongside wife Anna as the only two paid employees, explains those 3,000 pounds, once dried, translates into about 800 pounds of soup mix. That makes 266 bags and enough servings to feed tens of thousands of people.
So far their focus has been almost exclusively on potatoes, but the plan is to expand to include more other vegetables as well.
“We’ve tried a little bit of onions, and yesterday we tried zucchini—it dehydrated to almost nothing,” Reimer says. “But it still adds colour to the mix. Some nutrients.”
Anyone with excess vegetables is encouraged to connect with Southman Gleaners—they’ll take them.
“We’re looking for more avenues to get [connected with] more vegetable growers,” says Reimer, noting that includes backyard gardeners. “We just ask that it’s washed before it comes here. We’re not set up for that specifically.”
Beets, carrots, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes—if you’ve got extra veggies, call 204-542-8988 to arrange a time to drop it off.
The facility doesn’t currently have a cooler (that’s on their wish list for the future), so they’re looking at having designated drop-off days for specific types of produce so they can be processed at the same time within a few days.
Aside from produce, the Gleaners also need more volunteers to keep things moving smoothly.
“We need 30 people a day,” Janzen says. “We have half of that right now.”
Volunteer shifts run from about 8:30 to noon, and the work isn’t particularly demanding.
“It’s sitting at a table chopping potatoes and going through vegetables,” says Wall. “They can sit or they can stand, as they please. And if somebody wants to work for an hour, or two, or three, we’ll take anything that we can get.”
“We also need more volunteers than just trimmers,” Reimer adds. That includes cleaning, equipment maintenance, and a dryer operator. Contact the Gleaners at the number above or email admin@southmangleaners.ca to find out how you can get involved.
And you can check out the Southman Gleaners operation yourself at their grand opening next week Thursday, July 25, at their facility at 24 Reinfeld St. North.
The open house will start at 10 a.m. followed by a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. and a fundraising lunch provided by Horizon Colony from 11:30 to 1 p.m. To RSVP for the lunch, email waldemarb@mandako.com by July 17.
“We’ll have a limited production going so they can at least see what we’re doing,” Janzen says.
You can also connect with them online at southmangleaners.ca.
Photos by Ashleigh Viveiros/Voice
