by Elmer Heinrichs

A Manitoba MCC meat canning project and the publication of a new popular history about the Mennonites in Manitoba by the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS) were the key topics at a public information meeting at Valley Rehab Centre in Winkler, Saturday, 10 Feb. 2001. Held in conjunction with MMHS's annual meeting, together with MCC Manitoba, over 100 persons came to hear about the history project and current efforts in Manitoba meat canning.

Prof. John J. Friesen reported on his ongoing work of writing a popular history of Mennonites in Manitoba (200-250 pp.) intended for the interested reader both inside and outside the Mennonite community, a project of the society's research, scholarship, and publication committee.

While Manitoba's meat canning history is largely unrecorded, Dave Pankratz noted that some meat was canned in the village of Reinland. In Reinland's own history, Peter D. Zacharias writes that after World War II the facilities of Pembina Co-op Canners were mobilized to produce many cans of beef for a large scale Mennonite Central Committee relief project in Europe.

Initially, families canned meat in glass jars for sons in CO camps during WW II, and after the war to feed refugees from Russia and many other European countries who were in dire distress. To reduce breakage, canning gradually switched to metal cans.

MCC Ontario has now canned with a mobile canner for four years, and Manitoba, held up by regulations, has assisted a Mountain Lake, Minn. group in their canning for two. Last year the U.S. group added a day for the Manitoba group, said Calvin Hiebert and David Unrau.

In the autumn of 2000 thirty-seven culled cattle were donated - six slaughtered early, with the balance of 31 cattle butchered and deboned in a single day at Winkler Wholesale Meats, aided by volunteers.

Hutterites donated sows with proceeds going to pay the Winkler firm for the butchering.

A busload of 37 volunteers, including MCC Manitoba executive director Ken Reddig, accompanied a semi-trailer truck delivering the meat in 2,000-pound tubs to Mountain Lake, Minn. Here the Manitoba group, says Unrau, assisted their U.S. counterparts in canning the meat for overseas distribution to orphanages in North Korea, to Mozambique, to 50 different countries.

He adds that when the meat is shipped, arrangements are made for someone to be on hand to receive it. "It's reassuring to know that it reaches its destination, and it speaks volumes when we see someone who has been helped in the past now helping others," says Unrau.

A video of the recent meat-canning project from Winkler to Mountain Lake was enjoyed.