Crystal Springs uses empty barns to help feed the world’s hungry

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2023 (380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The agriculture industry, like any other, has its ups and downs, and at Crystal Springs Hutterite Colony near Ste Agathe, the downs in the livestock industry, particularly hogs, prompted a diversification to manufacturing that led to empty barns, ideal for the community to renovate and expand the colony’s charitable works.

Learning to help out the less fortunate, both at home and abroad, is high on the curriculum of life studies for young people growing up on the colony.

And it is this connection with a broader community that Ian Kleinsasser says is fundamental to the Hutterian way of life.

As a Hutterite living in Canada, Kleinsasser says he has never experienced hunger or homelessness. As Hutterites, one of the basic tenets is the belief in the community of goods and in living together to help each other.

“We are not only to help those of our own family, but to also be compassionate to the poor who are not part of our communities.”

While attending Brandon University, Kleinsasser said he had difficulty relating to the day-to-day concerns of his fellow students. He had no concept of what “need” looked like, and all his classmates talked about was the high cost of tuition, getting a job to pay for student loans, and a future which included mortgages and other debts.

“That is why charity programs, which are so much part of life at Crystal Springs, are so important,”

Approaching the colony from the north, a Grow Hope sign on the corner, that has been there a number of years, shows a field where crops are grown annually to support the Canadian Foodgrains Bank program.

Crystal Spring farm manager Jerry Waldner said they harvested 65 bushels of wheat to the acre on the 80-acre Grow Hope field this year.

Participation annually in the Grow Hope program, distribution of food to Winnipeg and rural food banks, and projects which send containers of goods overseas every year, are all great tools to teach Hutterite children not only about the past, but to raise awareness of the needs in other parts of the world.

While Crystal Springs has shifted from agriculture to manufacturing as its mainstay, the colony has not abandoned the unused barns, but has put them to new use as warehouses for the collection and distribution of charitable goods.

One of the barns now houses charity storage for overseas shipments, except for a small corner, which is used by the colony’s apiarist for honey extraction.

Here there is a wide variety of items from food and clothing to wheel chairs. A lot of the food is delivered in full pallets, which have been damaged in shipping. This food, sadly, would otherwise have been thrown out, Kleinsasser said.

Apparently, a damaged pallet is too much trouble for the companies to clean up and salvage the large amount of undamaged food. At Crystal Springs they have the facilities and the people who are willing to do that, Kleinsasser explains.

It’s disheartening to realize that up to 40 percent of this food may be dumped before it reaches retailers, Kleinsasser said.

At Crystal Springs, things like rolled oats, rice or peanut butter, delivered on damaged pallets, are sorted and repackaged to be shipped in containers to places like Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, or Romania, in Eastern Europe.

Foodstuffs like rolled oats, peanut better, rice and powdered milk are packed in family-sized plastic bags, then placed in sealed plastic buckets to be distributed to families overseas. The families can use the plastic pail for storage and when the food is eaten, the pails can be used for carrying water.

In most of the countries where these goods are sent, people have to carry water, Kleinsasser says.

Girls from another colony will come to Crystal Springs to help with the packing and loading of the containers. A current container that was being packed in late October, would be ready to be shipped to Liberia by two weeks.

Reverend Edward Kleinsasser oversees the charity program at Crystal Springs. He organizes the collection of goods, supervises the filling of containers and handles all shipping arrangements. He “knows the ropes” because he has been doing this for a long time.

Part of another building, which was unsuitable to be converted for manufacturing use because of low ceilings, is used for sorting and packing clothes destined to be distributed by Christian Aid Ministries based in Ontario and MCC, which is better known.

Not all of the foodstuffs and other donated goods the colony receives can be shipped overseas. A warehouse half-full of vegetables like potatoes and onions, which keep the longest, is stored here as well, in what was a former hog barn.

The vegetables are distributed to food banks like Helping Hands in Steinbach and Siloam Mission in Winnipeg on a weekly basis throughout the winter. Other colonies also helping to feed the needy in the city will take their vegetables directly to the food banks in Winnipeg.

Crystal Springs also bakes meat pies and pumpkin pies, which are also delivered to food banks.

Many of the items in a bin filled with sporting goods will find a home through an organization based in Winnipeg that supplies things like bike helmets to needy youngsters.

The bottom line for Crystal Springs is that where there is a need, Kleinsasser says the colony will be there with help.