The air carries the sour tang of drying vegetables, salt, and wet potatoes. The noise from a monstrous dehydrator—big enough to dry 1,400 kilograms of vegetables at a time—is as thick as the aroma. The sound echoes against the high ceiling and bounces off barrels and walls.

You’d think that standing on wet cement would make every joint ache and that the constant noise would be an assault on the people working in the cavernous warehouse. But the discomforts don’t seem to dampen the spirits of the crew of 42 volunteers. There is laughter, loud and often, over the noise of the machinery. These people got up with a very clear purpose this morning: they know that, for every hour they volunteer, they will produce enough dehydrated soup mix to make 120 meals for people who might not have anything to eat otherwise.

The Fraser Valley Gleaners non-profit organization receives leftover food from farmers—misshapen peppers, undersized potatoes, carrots that missed their shipping date, and, recently, 30 tons of Washington Walla Walla onions. They take these vegetables that would otherwise be deemed garbage, clean them, trim imperfections, put them through the dicer to be chopped into one-centimetre cubes, and store them in a huge cooler until they’re ready for the dehydrator and the transformation into dry soup mix. Five million servings of this mix reached hungry mouths in 2004. The plan is to increase production over the next five years to eight million servings per year.

Eldon Krause speaks loudly, to be heard over the clatter of metal drying trays rattling into position behind him. “I was a federal government employee, superintendent of corporate planning with the post office,” Krause says, adding that he and his wife, Hildie, have travelled here from Saskatoon to volunteer for a month. He scoops a handful of dried green peppers out of a huge blue barrel, pops it into an ice-cream pail, and slides the bucket to the next person, who adds dehydrated carrots and slides the pail down the line for another addition, and on it goes. “We are so blessed in this country,” Hildie says. “We have so much. It just feels good to be here and know we are helping those who are hungry.”

As usual, today’s volunteers are mostly elderly Mennonites, but increasing numbers of younger people are getting involved too. Some local teachers bring their classes to help the children learn the art of thinking beyond themselves, and the older people benefit as well, beyond the addition of volunteers to help out. “Teenagers are finding friends in the elderly and the older people are realizing the teens are no threat,” says Elaine Goosen. “It’s happening in a very subtle way. The seniors are realizing that they have to pass this torch on.”

Lentils or barley and salt are the last things to go into the pail full of dried vegetables and then it’s ready for the final step. Courtenay Cole, here with her grandmother, dumps the lot into a plastic bag and heat-seals it. “I’m going to hairdressing school,” Cole says. “Monday is my only day off, so those are the days I drive in from the east end [of Vancouver] to help out. Besides, my grandma makes me a special sandwich every time I come out.” Cole also volunteers with Beauty Night, a non-profit society that works with disadvantaged women to boost their self-esteem and help them make positive changes in their lives. “It’s no big deal,” Cole says. “I don’t necessarily go to church, which my grandmother doesn’t like, but I believe we need to do something.”

Carl Goosen, who is overseeing the volunteers today, used to be a dairy farmer. His journey to the Gleaners warehouse was the result of feeling a “tugging of the heart to do something that touched people’s lives.”

“It was kind of scary,” says his wife, Elaine. “I was raised on a dairy farm just like Carl and I assumed Carl and I would do this for the rest of our lives and our kids would take it over from us. But our pastor challenged us, in a sermon, when he asked if we felt there was more to life than this. And so, if we felt there was more, then take a leap of faith.”

The Goosens sold their home in 2000. Their 40 hectares of farmland and 170 cows were gone and they had no particular plan. “It was a panicking feeling but calming as well,” Elaine says. “We had spent a lot of time taking care of animals. We were ready to be more involved in people’s lives. Isn’t that the most important thing—relationships?”

Carl Goosen is the only paid employee in the Gleaners organization, which relies entirely on volunteers and donations. Most of the $10,000 monthly cost is for the gas to run the dehydrator. No wonder, given that it dries up to 4,000 kilograms of produce every day. The Gleaners lease the warehouse from the Mennonite Central Committee for $1 a year plus 30 per cent of the dried food, which the committee uses for its own relief and disaster projects. The remaining food is given to organizations such as Canadian Food for the Hungry and the Global Aid Network for distribution overseas to orphans, disaster victims, the homeless, and refugees. Countries on the receiving end in 2004 include Argentina, Congo, North Korea, Romania, Sudan, and Zambia. Two seven-metre containers, each containing 500,000 servings of soup, recently made their way to tsunami-damaged Indonesia.

Reliable relief organizations must apply to and be approved by an eight-member volunteer board that has to be satisfied that the organization has the funds and manpower to pick up, load, and deliver the goods, and the infrastructure to distribute the food directly to the people requiring it. “I find it exciting to know that we are here to provide the resources to groups that are already in place,” says Goosen. “It’s missionary work without leaving home.”

Fraser Valley Gleaners (fvgleaners.com) work with the original B.C. Gleaners in Oliver and with similar organizations in Washington, On-tario, and Australia.

Goosen says they are hoping their work will not only continue to feed hungry people but have an effect on how we see the world: “Maybe we can begin to look at the amount of waste we close our eyes to.”