And The Road Goes On

Despite a little snow delay in New Mexico, it has been smooth sailing this past week.  Currently I sit comfortably in Chicago, resting up for my next week of visits.  This week I’ll travel to Detroit, Ohio, Maryland and Washington DC.  I anticipate returning to Vermont by the winter solstice, just in time for my mother’s birthday and Christmas.

Here is where I’ve been this last week.  Please keep in mind these are just summaries and that the wealth of knowledge and information I am obtaining far exceeds what is contained within the paragraphs below.

*If you have sensitivity to viewing raw red meat, you may want to skip my visit summary from Thursday the 8^th.

Wednesday 7^th

South Plains Food Bank, Lubbock TX

The South Plains Food Bank (SPFB) serves 21 counties through their network of 220+ agencies, distributing more than 8 million pounds of food to roughly 85,000 individuals annually.  I met with the CEO, David Weaver, who introduced me to the food bank, the programs that specifically deal with produce and then gave me a tour of the facility.  The organization rescues from retail grocery outlets as do most food banks; this is only one source of the fresh food they distribute.  I was pleasantly surprised to have David invite me to a noontime Rotary club meeting and I was delighted to be their guest.

After the tour with David, farm director Debbie Cline toured me around other SPFB sites. In addition to food rescue and donations, SPFB owns and operates a farm that has existed almost as long as the organization has been in operation.  The farm currently operates the GRUB Program which engages area youth in the production of fresh food. The farm annually engages roughly 100 volunteer youth as well as 15 paid youth.  These teenagers will learn life skills in a classroom setting, agricultural food production in the field and produce some value added products like jellies and soap.  Food produced at the farm is distributed in CSA shares to 100 paying customers.  The remaining produce is put into inventory at the SPFB or through the Kitchen of Hope where Kids Café meals are prepared.

The SPFB distribution facility, the farm and Kitchen of Hope are all in separate locations but in very close proximity to each other giving the organization a nice presence in the community.  Also included in this mix is an orchard with its own processing and storage facility.  On ten of the available 25 acres at this site, the food bank produces 7 different varieties of apples plus a few other small volume random fruit.  The entire crop is incorporated into food bank inventory and culled apples are made into cider.

Breedlove Foods Inc., Lubbock TX

Next, I traveled across town to Breedlove Foods, an organization that was established by the SPFB and became its own independent non-profit roughly four years ago.  Breedlove is a food processing organization that began dehydrating donated fresh foods and has evolved into a very large operation providing emergency food relief to mostly international organizations.

They started out providing products for the food bank but soon realized that the demand for such products domestically didn't match the volume produced.  This led them to begin marketing their products to organizations worldwide where the need and demand was much greater.  Although they sell their products, they still function as a non-profit since separating from the food bank.

Much of their current work is sourcing, mixing and repacking of already dry ingredients into easy to make soup mixes.  One item that they do still dehydrate is purchased potatoes. The dehydration operation is very large, taking up two large rooms of their facility.  However, the dehydration of the potatoes occurs only about 30 days out of the year.  The rest of the time they are mixing, packing and shipping their products.  The organization is fully staffed and relies on no volunteer help.  One piece of their work I found particularly interesting was the lab on premises that helps ensure food safety and quality of product.  I asked why they purchase the majority of the ingredients they use and found that since they have developed products and have a high demand for them, they need a consistent supply and can’t rely on donations alone.

Thursday 8^th

Mennonite Central Committee - Mobile Meat Canning

I was introduced to this program two years ago thanks to my friend and past co-worker, Rebecca Beidler, who was aware of my interest to process Vermont dairy cows that no longer produce enough milk, into beef for incorporation into Vermont’s charitable food system.

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) operates a mobile meat canning unit that travels to host Mennonite communities in many southern and central states from October through April, efficiently processing and canning meat for national and international hunger relief distribution.  Meat products consist of beef, turkey and pork.

I was able to connect with the MCC unit in a rural north central Oklahoma town.  I showed up at 6 am joining roughly two dozen Mennonite men and women of all ages already at work cutting, grinding, cooking and canning beef.  My contact Gavino, and host community coordinator for the meat canning project, gave me a tour of the operation set up in a gymnasium located next to their school and church.  The community aimed to process between 12,000 – 16,000 pounds of beef in about a day and a half.  It was so impressive and over the next 24-36 hours many more community members would come to help out.

The operation is quite simple and the entire process is overseen by a USDA meat inspector to ensure all safety measures are followed.  First the meat is cut into sizes that can be put through the grinder.  Three bins of beef are put into a cook kettle and constantly stirred, often by two young men shouting, singing and laughing.  They cook the meat to 160 degrees and then a loud whistle would be heard or a horn would honk from the semi that moves the unit, signaling that help is needed to get the meat from the kettle to cans.  Often the young women would climb up into the unit to help pack the cans.  Then one of the MCC unit’s volunteer operators (of which there are three responsible for the entire operation and movement of the unit through a meat canning season) would run the machine that placed a lid onto the cans.  The cans are placed into a big metal basket and loaded into an industrial size pressure cooker.  Each batch of cans would remain in a pressure cooker for about two hours; both time and temperatures were monitored and tracked.  Once done in the pressure cooker, the metal basket of cans came out to the washing and labeling station where they were washed, labeled and boxed.

I found the whole process fascinating and inspiring.  I thought it was interesting that the host community covers associated cost like the meat purchase and power to run the unit.  And this is happening in many communities through the canning season as the unit travels to a new community within only 1-2 days of leaving the last community.  All canned meat products from all communities are sent to a storage facility in Pennsylvania where the MCC then manages the distribution of the product.  Who gets this product?  Last year more than 100,000 cans were sent to Haiti after the earthquake and after Katrina hit New Orleans, a comparable amount was sent there.

I feel so very fortunate to have been able to visit this project in action and was very warmly welcomed by the host community.  They kindly provided me breakfast and upon leaving, I was given a cookbook full of recipes collected from the women of the community.

Friday 9^th

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Nashville TN

David Cloniger, another contact I made at the Feeding America produce gathering conference in Columbus, Ohio (mentioned in my previous post), is the Food Resource Manager for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle, Tennessee (SHFBMT).  David transitioned to this position in June of this year and has been making a tremendous effort to increase the amount of fresh food within the food bank’s inventory.  His specific role is to source donated food items from area retailers, distributors and producers as well as bid on produce made available through an on-line choice system from Feeding America.

The food bank serves 46 counties containing more than 400 agencies that provide food to the more than 417,000 food insecure individuals in this region.  They distribute roughly 17 million pounds of food annually to these agencies.  Of this total, more than 1.5 million pounds is produce and that number continues to climb as David actively pursues available fresh foods.  He works closely with the organization’s volunteer coordinator to make sure the perishable produce he secures is sorted and re-packed if necessary in a timely manner to ensure distribution while the produce is still in good condition.  He is excited about the potential to continue increasing the volume of fresh produce, particularly by developing relationships with area farmers.  He speaks with great confidence that the organization is capable, as are the agencies they serve, of moving more fresh food given demand for produce by those being served by emergency food providers is very high.   He says currently he can’t get enough to fill the demand.