GOSHEN — Hundreds of volunteers in Goshen are preparing tens of thousands of pounds of chicken to send to places in need around the world, as a way to put into action biblical commands to feed the hungry.
Volunteers will be operating the mobile cannery for two weeks while it’s parked at the Depot Thrift Shop before the trailer is hauled south to Montgomery and Berne for the next teams to take over. The trailer tours the country every year, relying on local volunteers, many from Amish and Mennonite churches, to process the meat and fill and label the cans.
“It’s set up to travel to a lot of different sites throughout the U.S. Basically, it operates from October through April and travels around from New York and Pennsylvania out to Kansas and Nebraska, and places in-between,” said Eric Kurtz, executive director of Mennonite Central Committee Great Lakes. “The value of having it mobile is that we can take the canner to where the people are. Our supporters are in communities all across the country, particularly, we get a lot of support from Amish churches and Old Order Mennonites and other plain groups.”…