City Councils Can Pears for Food Banks

Usually the Broomfield City Council takes on serious and weighty city issues but on Thursday night four council members were facing a different type of challenge. The "challenger" was four large pallets of ripening pears in need of canning - and the pears had no chance of winning the battle.

The pears were donated from an orchard in Oregon to the Food Bank of the Rockies. In order to convert the pears to a more manageable and storable form, the Food Bank of the Rockies called upon the resources of Aurora cannery of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Martha Derda, Bob Gaiser, Linda Reynolds and Greg Stokes joined forces with Mark Kaiser from the Westminster City Council, Joyce Thomas who is the Federal Heights Mayor,  and other volunteers from Broomfield FISH, Westminster Have a Heart, Federal Heights New Life Worship, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Mayor Nancy McNally of Westminster and Mayor Patrick Quinn of Broomfield were out of town and were not available to participate.) They were hosted by Tom Dunford who is the Second Councilor in the Westminster Stake of the Church.

Their objective was to turn the donate pears into pear sauce (similar to apple sauce) for distribution to food banks selected by each city council. The cooperation between the councils was remarkable.

All the volunteers worked side-by-side to prepare and process the fruit . Wearing hairnets, plastic aprons, and gloves,  some sorted pears, removed stems and flowers, others loaded the screeners, filled cans, loaded the canning machines and the cookers. After cooking, the cans were labeled and loaded into boxes for delivery to the selected food banks.

The cannery staff was a little concerned with the late start but in the end, over 1400 cans of pear sauce were processes in less than three hours. After the remarkable accomplishment someone remarked that , "These are the movers and shakers in their cities. They get things done."

In Broomfield, the pear sauce was donated to Broomfield  FISH, in Federal Heights to the food bank of the New Life Worship Church and in Westminster, to Have a Heart.

Humanitarian canning opportunities not only provides food to the needy but they also enable opportunities for volunteers to provide kind and meaningful service to others, as Chirst did.

The Broomfield FISH Organization operates a 24 hour volunteer service providing emergency food, housing, transportation, information and referral, rent and utility payments, bus fare, basic household furniture, medical prescriptions and case work services to help families achieve self-sufficiency.

The "Have a Heart Project" was started in December 1996 as a 3-way cooperative effort between the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Adams County School District 50 and Smith World Travel. They have served over 10,000 children and their families in that area. "Have a Heart" is run by volunteers and there is no direct overhead cost to the project. Contributions from individuals, businesses and service organizations make the project possible. http://www.smithworldtravel.com/haveaheart.htm

The New Life Worship Center provides food and other services to the community. http://www.nlwconline.com/#/new-life