We, the Board of Directors of The Prairie Gleaners, hope this newsletter finds you safe and healthy. We are open, and volunteers, both new and returning are welcome.
These are extremely trying and unprecedented times, with self-isolating and practicing social distancing in order to keep ourselves and our loved ones as safe as we possibly can. We continue to abide by all Health Canada and Alberta Health Services guidelines in this trying time. We strictly enforce wearing masks, as they don’t only protect you, they also protect the people you are in contact with. We do supply masks if for some reason you forget yours. We want everyone to feel safe and comfortable while volunteering with us. If you have been a previous volunteer, but have not come out since Covid19, we encourage you to come out again when you feel comfortable doing so.
During this time we are continuing our task of gleaning and are extremely thankful for all of our donor partners as well as our many volunteers who come out to the plant to help us do God’s work of feeding the hungry of the world. We are also thankful for God’s provision in this endeavor. He has been faithful in providing for all our needs over the last 12 years, and we are confident He will continue to do so into the future.
We are embarking on a new and exciting time here at the Prairie Gleaners
as some of you may know. For that reason I am going to give everyone new to us, as well as our seasoned volunteers a trip down memory lane.
Where We Came From: The Past
Due to the hard work and organization of some very dedicated individuals, Clarence & Eleanor Knodel, James and Louisa Smith, Mal & Pearl Hambley, Eric & Sheila Eckert, Reg Friesen, Randy & Grace Liske, Marvin Phaff, Stan Wiens, and Marlies Wirzba, to name a few, in June of 2009, at 851 Industrial Avenue SE Medicine Hat Prairie Gleaners began production.
During the infamous flood of 2010, 3 feet of flood water caused a major cleanup of the facility before production could continue. Production continued until January of 2011 when a huge snow fall collapsed the building. Power and gas were shut off and work came to a screaming halt.
In December of 2011, we moved into our present location (formerly Cypress Packers) just south of Medicine Hat at 11502 Range Road 63. Thanks to a generous offer from someone who offered to finance the property purchase for us and through monthly payments, as of November 30th of this year we have repaid this loan in full. Please watch our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram and media announcements for our Mortgage Burning.
After some renovations, production began again in February of 2012.
Where We Are Today: The Present
We have been in production for the last 11 years at our present location, and have been thriving due totally to you, our faithful donors both in product and finances. As stated earlier, GOD has been faithful in providing us with donors, volunteers, and financial support, and all of our other needs and we are confident he will continue to do so into the future.
We at the Gleaners have had a very productive 2021 year. So far we have shipped 16,372 bags of our dehydrates vegetable mix to a variety of countries around the world such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, the Ukraine as well as our own Mustard Seed locally. At 120 cups per bag, this equals 1,964,640 cups. As always, we could not possibly do this without our many local volunteers as well as our partners around the world such as East West Trucking out of Calgary for shipping our product to different ports en route to the countries listed above. Also the NGO’s (Non- Governmental Organizations) around the world that distribute our product to the various countries such as Fellowship Aid & International Relief (FAIR), Global Emergency Missions Society (GEMS), Faith Missions out of Winkler, Manitoba and many others. Thank You!
Since our inception in 2009, with the help of our faithful volunteers, vegetable and financial donors, we have prepared a dehydrated vegetable mix equivalent to over 20,000,000 meals. This food has been distributed to over 30 countries worldwide through our partnerships with NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations), which have proven food distribution networks in the target countries to ensure the food reaches the vulnerable populations facing food insecurity.
Where To Now: The Future
In the last several years it has become very clear that worldwide food security is not improving, but rather is becoming worse, especially in light of the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. We realize that, although we are preparing over 2,500,000 meals per year by processing over 250,000 kg of vegetables, there are still many more vegetables available to us if we have the capacity to process them. This would allow us to supply even more food to areas in need.
Earlier this year the Board of Directors began an exercise to envision what additional facilities the Prairie Gleaners would require to significantly increase our vegetable processing capacity and hence produce more dehydrated vegetable product. It became clear that the major restriction was our ability to dehydrate the vegetables and that we would also have to increase the workspace available for our volunteers, increase our refrigeration space to store vegetables and generally increase our storage and subsidiary work space. We envisioned a 40’ x 100’ addition on the west side of our existing building. This addition would provide space to accommodate four new dehydrators, a larger refrigeration unit, and more volunteer work area, area to wash the incoming vegetables, area to bag the finished product for distribution and general storage and work space. We estimate that these additions would allow us to increase our yearly production of dehydrated vegetable mix to over 3,500,000 meals.
As you can imagine, we don’t have the financial resources to actually see this vision through to fruition.
Over the summer we were extremely fortunate to have a partner come along side us and offer to provide the financing and project management to build the addition to our existing facility. October 25th was the official ground breaking ceremony attended by donor, Big Marble Farms, and their partners Capstone Concrete, TANC Developments, Alta-Wide Builders Supplies, Spider Electric Ltd., Inland Concrete, Benchmark Geomatics Inc., and Art’s Excavating.
Construction is scheduled to begin this month and be completed in the spring of 2022. However, cost of the required infrastructure (the interior walls, etc.) to complete the expansion must be borne by the Prairie Gleaners. This includes the following non-exhaustive list as many other expenses will come to light as we progress:
- Four new dehydrators – $33,000 each, $132,000 total
- Refrigeration package – $55,000
- Electrical Service in new building – $15,000
- HVAC system, four tube heaters – $4,000 each, $16,000 total
- Modifications to the existing facility to provide additional volunteer Workspace and improved work flow through the process – $30,000
- Fifteen aluminum 20 tray racks – $200.00 each, $3,000 total
- Three hundred aluminum trays – $20.00 each, $6,000 total
- Three hundred Teflon sheets for trays – $10.00 each, $3,000 total
- Fifteen work tables – $350.00 each, $5,250 total
- Ten macro plastic bins – $365.00 each, $3,650 total
We are so appreciative of our donors who regularly supply us with vegetables for processing, as well as other donations.
Some of the produce that is donated to us are as follows:
Cabbage, rutabagas, carrots, squash, string beans, onions, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, peppers Tomatoes, beets, potatoes, celery, and lentils.
Other Donations include such items as a Pressure Washer, Snow Blower have been greatly appreciated.
We truly appreciate your financial support. We are 100% donor driven and your gifts are strictly used to operate the facility. If you would like to be a part of the ongoing work of the Prairie Gleaners, please consider leaving a legacy to the Gleaners in your will.
As you can see from the 2021 Budget Income thermometer we are definitely not as financially stable as we had planned when we came up with our current budget.
Due to our inability to have our annual Fall Banquet (a major source of funds) again due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have a considerable budget shortfall as you can see from the thermometer below.
We recognize that many people have already donated to us in the usual manner, and want you to know that this is NOT a plea for an extra donation.
Some methods you can use to support the Prairie Gleaners through donations are.
- E-Transfer auto deposit to our email address: [email protected]
- By mail to Prairie Gleaners at PO Box 656, Medicine Hat, AB T1A 7G6
- Drop off at the plant at 11502 Range Road 63, Cypress County
- On our website, click on the link CanadaHelps.org and use either Visa, MasterCard or Pay Pal
If you are interested in making monthly bank account withdrawals, please call the office at the plant at 403.526.5240 to speak to Debra or leave a message. There is a cost to us for this service, so we need enough people interested in order to make this a viable option.
Some items to consider for donation opportunities.
- Donate to cover the cost of a roll of teflon to line our dehydrating trays: $735.00
- Donate to cover the cost of 20 sheets of teflon to line one rack of trays: $205.00
- Donate to cover the cost of our Monthly Utilities (gas, electricity): $1500.00 per month
- Donate to cover the cost of bags for our vegetable mix $0.11 each
- Donate to cover the cost of one stainless steel cutting table: $350.00
- Donate to cover the cost of a lift of our vegetable mix: $2,775.00
- Donate to cover the cost of a box of our vegetable mix: $35.00
- Donate to cover the cost of a bag of our vegetable mix: $4.95
- Donate to cover the cost of fuel for the truck for one month: $150.00
- Donate to help offset the cost of a Skid steer for snow removal in our parking lot, the cost of which is approximately $15,000.00 used
We, the Board of The Prairie Gleaners Society, have been actively praying for God’s intervention in this matter. We are asking you to join us in prayer regarding our financial resources, and volunteer base, and in general feeding the hungry.
Board of The Prairie Gleaners Society, have been actively praying for God’s intervention in this matter.
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube by searching “Prairie Gleaners”. You can find 9 different video clips ranging from 30 seconds to about 20 minutes in length.
We would like to sincerely thank all of our volunteers, donors, staff, and anyone else who has been partnering with us to help feed the hungry, through prayer or whatever means they have at their disposal.
God Bless