Prairie Gleaners: Feeding 52 Countries with Alberta Produce

As Canadians with an abundance of food, it is easy to overlook the potential of surplus produce. In today’s episode of  Bring Back the Porch, we’ll explore how Medicine Hat’s own Prairie Gleaners is leading the charge against food waste by turning off-grade vegetables into nourishing meals for communities around the world. 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of Prairie Gleaners
01:59 What is Gleaning and How It Works
04:12 Processing Vegetables for Dehydration
06:13 Global Shipping and International Partnerships
09:57 Shelf Life and Quality Control
10:32 Volunteer Involvement and Community Impact
12:47 Ed’s Personal Journey and Motivation
14:14 Feedback from Beneficiaries and Donation Process
15:25 How to Donate and Support Prairie Gleaners16:52 Upcoming Events and Community Engagement


How Prairie Gleaners Is Tackling Food Waste and Supporting Communities
Prairie Gleaners is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006, officially starting operations in 2009. Their mission is to collect surplus and off-grade vegetables from local growers and suppliers, which would otherwise go to waste. These vegetables are processed into dehydrated meals, providing essential nutrition to those in need.

1. **Collecting Surplus Produce**: Every year, the organization collects vegetables that are still good but not suitable for sale due to visual imperfections. These include items like potatoes with minor nicks or carrots that are misshapen.
2. **Processing**: After collection, vegetables are cleaned, diced, and dehydrated. Ed explains that approximately 1,200 kilograms of raw vegetables can be processed in a single day, resulting in hundreds of bags of nutritious meals ready for distribution.
3. **Distribution**: The dehydrated meals are then shipped to various NGOs and nonprofit partners across the globe, including locations in Ukraine, Africa, and even Cuba. Prairie Gleaners works with these organizations to ensure that the food reaches those who need it most.

Volunteer Opportunities
Prairie Gleaners relies heavily on volunteers to help with various tasks, from sorting and cleaning vegetables to packing the final products. Ed mentions that they average about 31 volunteers a day, providing a vital workforce that keeps the operation running smoothly. 

- No Experience Needed: Anyone interested in volunteering can simply show up during their operating hours. It’s a great way to contribute to the cause without prior experience.
- Community Engagement: Volunteers often share that the experience is rewarding and enjoyable, helping them feel connected to the community and the mission.

The impact of Prairie Gleaners goes beyond just food distribution. By collecting surplus vegetables, they are actively reducing food waste, which helps the environment. Their dehydrated meals provide essential nutrients to communities facing food insecurity. Over the years, Prairie Gleaners has shipped products to over 52 countries, highlighting their commitment to helping those in need around the globe.

Prairie Gleaners is doing incredible work by reducing food waste and providing nutritious meals to those in need. Their commitment to community service and sustainability is truly admirable. If you’re looking for a way to give back, consider volunteering or donating to support their mission.

Want to learn more about how you can help? Visit their website for more information on volunteering and donations.

Resources:

Prairie Gleaners Official Website - https://prairiegleaners.com
CFIA Food Inspection Agency - https://inspection.canada.ca
Global Emergence Mission Society - https://gemscanada.ca/

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again. And I'd like to ask you to do a favour. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please, like, share, subscribe. Tell your friends about bring back the porch. There's actually two definitions if you look in the dictionary. One of them is to collect information. So what are people going to glean from this talk that that we're having now. And the other one is to pick up what's left after the harvest. And that's what we essentially do. We gather surplus and off grade vegetables from growers and suppliers in the area. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. One of the things that we like to do here on Bring Back the Porch is share the good news that is happening in Madison that put things in the spotlight that maybe sometimes don't get noticed. Today we have Ed Cotton from the Prairie Gleaners with us. Welcome, Ed. Well, thank you, Brian, I appreciate the opportunity to, to talk a little bit about the cleaners and the good stuff we do. The Gleaners are tucked away in a little corner just south of, Desert Blue, and I think it is just in Cypress County. Yes. It's, down Range Road 63, about 4.5km south of highway three. It's the old Cypress meatpacking plant of people. Recognize that and know where it is. That's where we are. 2009 I think it began. We actually went into operation in 2009. We were registered as a nonprofit charity in 2006. Okay. But it took time, that enabled us to accept donations and give receipts for donations. But it took time to put equipment together and get a space and all of that infrastructure before we started. But we actually started it in 2009. And some may be wondering about the term gleaners. Gleaning. There's actually two definitions if you look in the dictionary. One of them is to collect information. So what are people going to glean from this talk that that we're having now. And the other one is to pick up what's left after the harvest. And that's what we essentially do. We gather surplus and off grade vegetables from growers and suppliers in the area. And it ends up in a bag. Like that or. Something like that. And you were telling me that would make about 110 cups of soup. That's right. Yeah. Vegetable soup? Yup. How does it get to here? Well, when we gather the vegetables, the first thing that we do is, we clean them up. So potatoes might have a little dick in the side, or things might. Yeah. Just need some trimming up. So we do that, and then all of the vegetables go through a dicing machine, and you can see here, that's a little potato piece. You put a potato in the dice and it comes out in about a quarter inch cube. Okay. We load all the vegetables onto trays and put them in our dehydrator. So these are the dehydrated vegetables, and they're all moisture content. Less than about 8%, which is what the definition of dehydrated is. So this is then a mixture of the vegetables that we have, processed over a few weeks. And, we mix them up and put them in bags. And you can see that we have added lentils to the mix, and the black things are beans, and there are peas in there too. The those are peas. And that's to get some protein into the mix. So about 40% of what's in the bag are beans, peas and lentils. And about 60% are dehydrated vegetables. And this is all produced from southern Alberta. Southeastern Alberta. Yes it is. Well that's right. That's nice. How much time would it take to make a bag like that? A day. Normally on a normal day operating, we process about 1200kg of of raw vegetables, incoming vegetables. And, that will make probably when it's all done. It would make about, Oh, I don't know, 2 or 300 of these bags. A day in a day in. A day. Do you have a problem? When the winter comes and the harvest is over and you get kind of in between? We we have never run out of product. Never. Really. There are very generous potato growers in the area that will provide us with potatoes up until just a couple of months over the summer, when they're between cleaning out their beans and the new harvest, greenhouses, red hat co-op. So we get we get product all the time. The mixture varies in the winter time. We're not getting things like peppers and tomatoes very much. And in the summertime, we tend not to get potatoes because they're not growing potatoes and carrots, just not growing up. But we've never run out. Who, who comes up with the recipe? Sort of a book of. Hey, I need this much here in this area. No, no. Well, the beans, peas and lentils, it's their standard. But the rest of the vegetables, as we as we process them since they change through the year. We take what we're making restored in 40 gallon barrels, sealed in plastic, and we know what's in the barrel. So then when we start to do this, we can take a barrel that's mostly potatoes in a barrel. That's got a lot of carrots and tomatoes in it. And so we get a mixture and then, we have scoops. Two cup scoops that we take a scoop and, and, and we put it together and dump it in the bag like that and put a seal on it. And this all then gets shipped. How many different countries have you shipped product to? Something like 52 or 53 different countries over the year or the years? The last few years, that's been mainly the Ukraine. And, and into Africa. This year, just a few weeks ago, we had a shipment, that it's ended up going to Cuba. Okay. That was a with, world served ministries there in Surrey and another shipment that will be going to the Ukraine with Faith mission. They are located in winter, Manitoba. So you partner with various, church groups that at, spearhead this, or are you all independent? We we're a Christian based organization, but we're not associated with any particular church or denomination. We just try to operate on Christian principles, recognizing that it is the Lord that is providing this force and is giving us an opportunity to help him help people in the world who need help. So how do you ship this? Somebody calls you and said, we need so many tons of what? Yes. Yeah. We we are looking at us as a food provider. We we do not ship. We do not have that expertise, and we don't have the financial resources to do that. So we operate with NGO partners. Non-governmental organizations. Food for the hungry there in Saskatoon. Faith Mission and Winkler, Manitoba strategic International disaster relief there in Cologne, a British Columbia global emergency mission mission society. They are in Abbotsford. So they will come to us, and say we have food we need. We have a need for food. Do you have any? And what we normally do with these is we we pack them in boxes and put them on pallets. So on a pallet to would typically be 560 bags like this. And a normal shipment would be 20 of those pallets that would fit in a 40ft sea container. And so if they want a 40ft sea container and we have it, or that we can have it ready in a reasonable period of time, we say, sure. And, then they are responsible. They are responsible for bringing a truck to our facility. We load the product into the truck, and now it's theirs. And they have the responsibility for organizing all of the shipping, paying for it, getting it into the country, wherever it's going, which sometimes it's not a trivial thing to be able to do. And then they're responsible for distributing in the country, getting it to where it's supposed to go without losing it. And we've never had an issue yet with a shipment being lost. I mean, maybe that's fortunate. The Lord looking after things, but it's gone into some place that's where we're that would be a real concern, whether or not it's going to get where it comes. The way the world is going these days, shipping is a problem with, the ongoing problem in Iran with the Strait of Hormuz being, blockaded, boycotted, whatever. That's right. Yeah. In Cuba as well. Ships are there, scarce. That's right. And in fact, right around the first of the year, we had, one of our partners wanted to do a shipment to Cuba, and we were all all ready to give them the food. But the ship was trapped in Cuba and couldn't leave, I assume because they didn't have fuel so that, that shipment is still waiting to go. What's the shelf life on a bag like this? On. You can see that on the cost. Best before. Date. There's a best before date. We say three years. Okay. Which is typical for dehydrated vegetables. And it also is also a lot number printed on there. So what's in here? I can trace back to when that produce arrived at the plant. Okay. So quality control. And if there's a problem with the ship and you can kind of go back and trace the steps and find it, okay. You've got outside partners, but you've also got a lot of people here in Medicine Hat who just show up. Yes. Absolutely, absolutely. We average about 31 volunteers a day. Come to help us. We have, I believe, about 90 actual members of the society, but about 31 people a day come out to help us. And that is from about, what, 830 in the morning until. Noon, 830 until noon, Tuesday to Saturday. We aren't open on Mondays. Okay. And you don't open on Saturdays on long weekends either. No we don't. We don't do holidays. We aren't open. Okay. So somebody who might be watching or listening to this, I've got a couple of hours. How can I help. Show up. And no previous experience required. No. And that's that's one of the things people like about the way we operate is we do not ask people to sign up for times, if, if you get up in the morning and if you'd like, you'd like to, come and trim some vegetables, come on out and, Yep. Just head to Lethbridge at Range Road 63. That's where Big Marble Farms is. Right on that corner, range road 63, turn left and keep going, and you'll run right into us. How did you get involved? Yes. My wife passed away in 2015, and I became a hermit. My next door neighbor, Ken Martins, was the plant manager for Prairie Cleaners at that time. And he started, wanted to. Come on. Oh, well, don't you come on. A little nudges. And I kept saying, yeah, I don't want to do that. And finally I said yes on just to shut him up. I wanted him to stop asking me, so I agreed to come. So I went and then I went again, and then I went again, and then I caught the vision. And so, I've been going pretty regularly for about nine years, a couple times a week. Okay. And it is infectious. I guess it is infectious. Good people, lots of fun. A good project to be working on. But yeah, it's just a good way to spend a few hours. Do you ever cook this up yourself and have it, for lunch when you're out there? No no no no. In fact, that's interesting. We're having an open house in a couple of weeks. Well, in fact, next week is, volunteer appreciation week. Okay. So during that week, we are, serving lunch for our volunteers as a vegetable soup, which will be essentially this, but not dehydrate. It will will have all of these things in it, but it won't be the dehydrated variety. And that'll be the week starting April 20th, I believe. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Ever had any thought about marketing this and selling it to raise money? Not allowed. Not allowed. We have, an operating license with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA. And one of the provisos in our operating license is that this leaves the country. Okay. Now, we have been able to ship into the high Arctic a couple of times. But in those instances, we've asked the CfiA for an exemption to allow us to do that. And they have. So, no, we don't sell this. It's in fact, right at the bottom. It's, it's this product is not to be sold. It's, it's it's to give away, to get to people who really need it. Do you ever hear from the people who benefit from this? Yes, yes. One of the things we do with our organizations that take the food is, we have them commit to give us feedback. So we'll either get reports from the people who are running the orphanage where it's gone, for example, or pictures or written reports come back to us so we get some feedback that way. That must be heartwarming as well. It is. It is when. You know you've actually helped someone who you'll never meet. Never. You don't know. Yeah. But you're doing the Lord's work. That's right. Yeah. That's right. If people want to donate cash or other things, how do they go about doing that? You can e-transfer to the prairie cleaners. There is an organization called Canada, benefits that have that we're listed with and another one called but beneficiary, beneficiary, beneficiary. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm drawing a blank. Or just e-transfer it to us. Yeah. Okay. And you mentioned that you were able to issue a tax receipts. That's right. Donation over 20. Dollars. Any donation that we get, we'll issue a tax receipt for. Okay. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you'd like to bring up? It's, It's a wonderful story. This prairie gleaners. We're not the only one in Canada. I'll give everybody else a plug. There are ten operations like us in Canada. There are three. In British Columbia. There are two. Number two. The other one in Alberta is in the creek, which is way north. You know, really creek. That's just north of Bonneville? Yeah. There's one in, Manitoba, but, and there are four in Ontario, and there are actually two in Michigan as well, that we're doing the same kind of thing. We're gathering left over and not pretty vegetables, dicing them up, dehydrating them, making the same kind of product. And the food quality is not second or no know, just maybe doesn't look like something someone would buy in the store. That's right. When I say off grade, what I mean is a carrots not straight. Oh, that's. That's too big or too small or it's broken or a tomato has a wart on the side of it. Not pretty. They're just not going to sell in stores and excise, many of the potato farmers, for example, they, they way over their quota. So they're more than happy to give it away. But it's nutritionally there's no difference. Product is good. It's just doesn't look good. Nice. And just to mention again to that on the week of April 20th, people that are curious can come out. Actually on the following Saturday, we're having an open house. Okay. And people can come out for that. We'll give them tours and explain what we're doing. And, and we're having burgers and hot dogs and stuff for lunch so they can stop out and partake of that. Next week is for our volunteers, okay. It's to feed back to them a bit from what they've done. All right. Ed calling with prairie gleaners. Thanks for the visit. Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak about this. Thank you. I'm.