Over 215,000 kilos of charitable food donations made by the Ontario Christian Gleaners in 2021

It was last June when the Ontario Christian Gleaners realized 2021 was on the verge of becoming a record-breaking year for food preparation.

"We realized we were shipping the equivalent to what we have done any other year, and by that point as a staff, and sharing that with our volunteers that we realized the need was so great," said Elaine Merkus, manager at the OCG.

In November, the Cambridge charity originally reported producing 164,000 kilos of prepared food. By the end of the year, that number increased to over 215,000 kilos.

“That would probably equate to at least nine million servings of food,” said Merkus.

Helping other organizations with disaster relief and development the OCG is much like an international food bank. Started in 2008, it spends over 1,100 hours a week processing 25,000 to 35,000 pounds of food.

Along with producing over 215,000 of prepared food, the OCG sent that food to 15 different countries by 17 different mission organizations in 34 shipments.

Merkus mentions these results are incredible despite having to reduce the number of volunteers within their facility due to the pandemic, and come up with different ways of doing things.

“It’s definitely a record year for us, 2020 was a record year at 130,000 kilos, so we’ve been very blessed here in terms of getting food dried, getting food in here and out of the building." said Merkus. 

“We’re providing healthy, nutritious, dried vegetable mixes for schools, for villages, just to provide that nutrition that they need,” said Merkus,“and at the same time, we’re providing a good need in our community that gets them out and doing things."

“It is disaster relief, but a lot of the groups that we work with are using the food for relief and development, so it can kind of go into both."

While the OCG focuses mainly on international efforts, there are times when they assist local food banks at a time when more people are experiencing food insecurity. 

“The question that is asked often is what are we doing to help with hunger locally, or the lack of food for some people, so we do have opportunities where we share food, with the donors permission, to other local food banks and other organizations as well,” said Merkus.

Recently, Merkus said the OCG gave some food recently in Cambridge and will soon meet with a group in Guelph.

“It’s not our focus, but we can work together,” said Merkus, “and it can come sometimes too, that a food bank gets way too much and they will contact us and say, ‘Hey can you take this?’ and it’s great to see organizations working together.” 

While this has been a record-breaking year for the OCG, Merkus said it would not be possible without those who volunteer with them.

“I think it's great to get people out and doing something, especially during these times, to come out, masked and socially distanced, and feel like they're doing something and still being with people,” Merkus said about the volunteers at the OCG.

Assistant manager Tamara Terpstra said one of her favourite things about working with the organization is seeing volunteers pride themselves on their work.

"It's been such a blessing to see the volunteers realize the valuable impact they have on others," said Terpstra.

Merkus mentions some volunteers have personal reasons for helping out.

“I remember one of our volunteers at a fundraising event, she grew up in Holland, and she remembers during the war, and they were eating tulip bulbs because of a lack of food," said Merkus. “We do have a lot of senior volunteers and they know what it is to have need, and so for them, it’s extremely meaningful to help people.”

In 2022, the OCG is still receiving many calls for help worldwide. Besides volunteering, residents can also help the OCG missions by contributing financially or sourcing dried and fresh produce for their veggie mixes. This past year, Merkus mentions receiving lots of dried food donations, like barley and apricots, for their mixes.

“We’ve just met as a staff at the beginning of the month and we talked about some of our goals, and one of them is we are hoping to increase our food production."said Merkus. 

"We’re seeing it already, I’ve got a whiteboard here in my office filled with food aid requests and we just trust that we're going to meet all of these requests in a quick of a time as they want."

More information about their organization can be found here.