LAVINGTON – A North Okanagan group that helps to feed people in need around the world has had a record-breaking year. The North Okanagan Valley Gleaners received over a million pounds of donated produce so far this year. Around 45 per cent of the donated food came from local producers.
The donated vegetables are diced, dried and eventually turned into soup mix by the Gleaners’ team of volunteers. The Gleaners work with humanitarian aid groups who ship the soup mix to countries like Guatemala and Romania. More donations mean the Gleaners will be able to provide the aid groups with more servings of soup.
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“There is so much hunger around the world in many countries and we’ve never had any trouble finding agencies that will take our soup mix,” says general manager Harold Sellers. “This year we will be able to supply them with even more so my hope would be that we will be able to send some food to some additional countries this year.”
Sellers says this year the group is expecting to produce seven million servings of soup mix. For the Gleaners the donation milestone is only one step towards a larger goal.
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