The Southwestern Ontario Gleaners have moved into a former fish processing plant in Leamington and will celebrate with a grand opening Aug. 10.
The charity wants to take surplus vegetables, dehydrate them and make soup mixes to help feed the hungry whether they are here in Essex County or in poor areas around the world. The gleaners, who got their start earlier this year, base their work on biblical instructions to leave the gleanings, grain left in the fields after the harvest, or the corners of crops for the poor.
“We’ve made so much progress. The community has been absolutely astonishing,” Southwestern Ontario Gleaners treasurer Tina Quiring said Monday.
In June, the group started a five-year lease of a 10,000 square foot plant at 40 Industrial Drive in Leamington. She said the gleaners hope to be dehydrating vegetables in practice runs by September and could be making soup mixes by October.
The gleaners have already had a tray dryer to dehydrate vegetables donated and the group got a good price on a dicer, she said. A lift truck and a kitchen were donated too. Quiring estimated about $50,000 worth of equipment has already been donated.
The group originally set out to raise about $300,000. She estimates about $55,000 has been raised so far and she thinks they need about $60,000 more to get going with the equipment they have. The group would eventually need to upgrade and get more machines such as a machine that washes the vegetables but Quiring said it is a beginning.
Quiring said they already have farmers offering to donate food later and people willing to help with transporting vegetables. She said volunteers could make soup mixes that local food banks could distribute and the facility with the dicer may be used by community groups that chop vegetables for school programs.
The group will need 25 to 40 volunteers. Quiring said the tray dryer will allow them to dehydrate tomatoes which is a major consideration since Leamington is known for its tomatoes. She said sometimes food banks get too many vegetables at once and dehydrating them will save food that otherwise would go to waste. She said the group here may be able to trade dehydrated veggies with a similar operation in Cambridge to improve variety in the soup mixes.
Three pounds of dehydrated vegetables can make 100 servings of soup, she said.
The Aug. 10 grand opening at 40 Industrial Drive in Leamington runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be tours, an 11 a.m. ribbon cutting, a barbecue and live entertainment. The group is hoping the tours of the facility will encourage donations and people can also donate online at http://www.swogleaners.org. There is also a Sept. 19 fundraising gala at Viewpointe Estate Winery.
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