The SWO Gleaners organization was one of five organizations that recently received a grant from the Honey Family Foundation Fund. The Southwestern Ontario Gleaners was awarded $10,000 to help them support food security in Essex County. The funding will be used to purchase supplemental ingredients such as split peas, lentils, and barley. This will serve to further the nutritional value provided
Summer News This summer, the SWO Gleaners is fortunate to have four student summer job placements through Canada’s Summer Jobs Program. Having 4 extra employees for 8 weeks allows us to produce more dried food, and helps fill gaps in vacation time for staff and regular volunteers. We have a good group of guys this year. Thank you, Noah, Miguel,
COVID-19 continues to slow our usual rate of production. Nonetheless, we feel fortunate that despite this, we were able to distribute over 2.8 million servings of dehydrated vegetable mix and apple snacks to local and international food aid agencies in 2020. In 2021, so far, 650,00 servings have been distributed and we expect this number will increase substantially as the
Through our Distribution Partners, our dehydrated vegetable mix was shipped to Malawi and Haiti. Canadian Food for Children distributes food, clothing, and other items to over 20 different countries, including Malawi. Although it is very difficult to get aid through to Haiti, after several months our food product was released to its intended destination through Enable Haiti. We are grateful
In April, our Province experienced the 2nd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay-at-home orders were issued as variants continued to spread. As an essential food processor, the SWO. Gleaners made the decision to stay open, but with even greater safety protocols. This required that we reduced the number of volunteers per shift to ensure physical distancing. Many dedicated volunteers have
General Manager, Joel Epp and volunteers were interviewed by CTV and talked about the importance of reopening and the work that they do at the WO Gleaners. View the News Clip HERE
In February, we had the misfortune of having to deal with a break and entry at our facility. Luckily, there was no major damage beyond a couple of broken windows and a big mess to clean up. No food was taken or destroyed. Approximately $5000. in theft and damages overall. We were saddened by this incident and hope the person
UMEI students came by and spent time working with the SWO Gleaners soup mix production. Together, the students packaged 178,800 servings of soup mix. This shipment is slated to be sent to Honduras to help the people recover from a recent hurricane. It is always great to see our local young people get involved!
SWO Gleaners is a busy place and every now and then we are delighted with something different. How about a bit of cabbage? Well, that’s what we worked with this week. Our volunteers are always there to help out.
We were not short on volunteers which reflects the kindness of our community. In fact, there were so many helping hands that this large container was packed up and ready to roll in a mere 5 hours – which sets a new record! This container is set to arrive in Ukraine in December. Altogether we were able to send 420
