Cannery preserves food and provides service

Intermountain Catholic

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Anna Sandoval, a volunteer from Catholic Community Services, and Devan Doney from the Syracuse Bluff Stake box cans of beef stew.

OGDEN — A new partnership between Catholic Community Services (CCS) and the Ogden Utah Cannery is helping to fill the shelves of CCS’s Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank while at the same time providing an opportunity for the community – including CCS clients – to help out.

CCS’ northern food pantry serves, on average, 1,400 families a month. "We’re the largest food pantry in Northern Utah, and we have seen about a 30 percent increase this past year," said Marcie Valdez, director of CCS’s northern Utah office. Each family receives an average of 150 pounds of food per month, or about a week’s worth of groceries.

"Most of the people that we serve are families and they’re working families," she said. "It’s the working poor who, especially these past two years, they just really struggle to meet their basic needs. We also have a lot of families who are on disability, or elderly clients on a fixed income. So often we see these clients whose monthly income is somewhere between $600 and $800 a month and there just isn’t any way for them to meet those basic needs without some additional support. For our working families, it only takes one crisis to set the wheels spinning, so we serve as a safety net for that group."

Under the arrangement with the cannery, volunteers work shifts at the facility and the food pantry receives the equivalent in commodity of what the workers produced. About six weeks ago CCS began sending volunteers to the cannery; by April 15, 22 volunteers had amassed 107 hours, Valdez said. "In exchange we receive food commodity. It enhances what they’re doing there, but it also helps support our food pantry."

The cannery is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which "wanted to expand and give more opportunities for community involvement," said Brent Lund, stake president. "With the need and the economy and such, we felt this would be a great opportunity to reach out to more people in the community, and we know that the Catholic Church has been very, very involved with the Ogden community and helping people, especially the poor and the needy, and so we got together."

The cannery typically produces turkey, beef and beef stew; in a single day 14,500 cans of beef stew may be prepared. The product is sent to a central warehouse in Salt Lake City, from there it can be sent worldwide to places in crisis such as Haiti or Iceland.

Except for five full-time employees, the crew is all volunteer, primarily from LDS stakes. "The purpose of the cannery is caring for the poor and the needy," said Rick Payne, cannery foreman, "but the bigger purpose that sometimes is overlooked, and is highlighted by what we’re doing with the Catholic Community Services, is it gives those who are receiving and members of the church the opportunity to serve. When somebody serves, they’re selfless, they forget about themselves, it builds that person."

Lund agreed, adding, "The whole premise is we want them to have self esteem and not just get something for nothing."

On April 23, Anna Sandoval was one of those from CCS working a shift at the cannery as a way to fulfill community service hours, and said it was a good experience. "Am I going to come back and volunteer? Oh, yes!"

People interested in volunteering at the cannery may contact Kelly Farley at 801-394-5944 or kfarley@ccsutah.org.