JFS Perspectives

 

'Tis the season for food...lots and lots and lots of food! While most of us are looking forward to enjoying a nice holiday meal next week, some will have to go without. In an effort to make sure that doesn't happen for our Weinberg Food Pantry clients, we asked for your help...and you didn't let us down! We are happy to report that we met our monetary goal. Thank you to all those who contributed! This will help us distribute food for Thanksgiving meals to more than 100 families next Wednesday.

In addition, we are working hard to keep the Pantry shelves stocked through the winter holidays with some help from our volunteers. Earlier this month, 14 employees from CenturyLink spent four hours turning thousands of pears into pear sauce at the LDS Cannery for our Weinberg Food Pantry. Jessica Paul, Family Safety Net coordinator, says, "The CenturyLink employees have a day each year where they go out and volunteer, and several of them picked JFS and hope to do it next year."

 

And then this week, Cooking Matters came to demonstrate how to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins using the pear sauce as a substitute for oil. Our Pantry clients got to sample these muffins and take a bag of the ingredients that included the recipe!

In other Food Pantry news...

Thanks to Steven and Sheila Higgins, who own a well-organized store full of tabletop games and supplies called Total Escape Games. On November 5, they hosted and helped organize a special game day and food drive for JFS, with the proceeds and canned food going to the Weinberg Food Pantry. They were able to collect 60 pounds of food and raised $372 in donations, which also included a generous personal donation.

Thanks to everyone for supporting the local community and helping us in the fight to end hunger!

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department

Yesterday we joined 13 other volunteers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Cannery in Aurora to can pinto beans for the Weinberg Food Pantry. Upon arrival, before entering the canning area, we were instructed to put on hair nets and then watched an orientation video about the facility's safety rules and regulations. After putting on the proper canning attire and thoroughly washing our hands, we were each assigned a job on the assembly line.

Before we got there, the Cannery staff cooked pinto beans in two giant vats. Kari's job was to work with another volunteer, Joel, to scoop the cooked beans out of the vats into smaller vessels, which were then poured onto the area where the beans were put in cans. "It was hot and steamy in my area, but instead of complaining, I decided it was good for my skin and thought of it as a free facial!" Kari says.

There was a semi-automated area where empty aluminum cans dropped down to a work area where two people put salt pellets in the bottom of each can before they moved on the conveyer belt to be filled with beans. Alaina worked with four other people to fill the cans with the right amount of beans before they moved on to get topped off with water. "It was tricky to get each can to be the precise weight before the cans moved away from us on the belt!" Alaina says.



The Cannery staff weighed three cans every 15 minutes and took an average weight to tell us if we needed to adjust the amount of beans we put in. After awhile, we got the hang of it and found that the beans needed to be filled to just below the second ridge in the can. "This process gave me a deeper appreciation for factory workers!" Alaina adds.



After the cans were filled with beans and water, they moved along the conveyer belt where lids were placed on top of the cans and sealed. Then three other volunteers placed the cans into a cart where they cooled. 30 minutes later, we started the process of labeling and boxing the cans while other volunteers cleaned up the wet pack canning area with high-pressure steam hoses. After everything was completed, we even got to sample our work!



Thank you to the LDS Cannery for donating the beans, the use of the facility, and all of the materials! After three hours of hard work, we had produced 2,400 cans of beans to be distributed at our Weinberg Food Pantry. While it was hard work, remembering that we were feeding families in need with this product was a rewarding feeling!



At the end, some of us stayed for a tour of the impressive facility that includes a food pantry, LDS Family Services, and warehouses full of supplies to be used during natural disasters. We learned a lot from Eric Sawyer, field specialist, and Sister Janelle Norris, a church volunteer!

JFS volunteers go to the Cannery four to six times a year and can different products ranging from applesauce, to beans, to peaches to benefit the Weinberg Food Pantry. If you would like to participate in this unique opportunity, please contact Nancy Benyamin, director of volunteer services at (303) 597.5000 x369.

-Alaina Green and Kari Alpen, JFS Marketing Department