Today Brian and I had the awesome opportunity to can peanut butter for the LDS Church Welfare Services. Wow! We enjoyed it so much! We learned that the cannery in North Houston is the only PB factory the church owns. That means that the peanut butter the Church distributes to the Bishop Storehouses, Food banks, Humanitarian aid, etc. comes from this factory.
Our shift was a little over 4 hours. Brian was the Foreman. His wife volunteered him :o). So he oversaw the workers on our shift. There was about ten of us. My jobs were peanut picker (you get to sort through the roasted peanuts and pick out the burnt ones), jar stabilizer, and lid distributor. Brian walked around and made sure everything was running smoothly and that everyone was doing their jobs correctly.
There were a few men in the factory that are actually called to work there. They walked around in dark blue jumpsuits and had big forearms and crinkly smiles. They reminded me of my dad.
When the factory is open, it runs for 24 hours. Every time the machines are shut down, they have to be washed, sterilized, etc. and the cost to do this every time is significant enough that they only open the factory 8-10 times every year for about 4 or 5 days. And like I said, during this 4-5 day period the PB is being manufactured around the clock to cut down on costs. What is so amazing about this is that they need volunteers to work shifts during the night. So church and community members come to the cannery in the early hours of the morning and sacrifice their time, sleep, and comfy beds to pick peanuts and screw on lids!
Brian and I again felt a confirmation about how true The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is. What a blessing it is that our Church can count on ward members to sacrifice so much time and energy to run factories like this. I encourage everyone that can to serve their community through organizations like this cannery. If you belong to the LDS church, you can clean church buildings, volunteer at the temple, work in canneries, serve in your Church calling, visit the sick and those that are lonely, and be a Home or Visiting Teacher. It is so important that we remember how solemn our individual role is in serving in our church and community. The LDS church could not function without willing volunteers who sacrifice countless hours of time.
To learn more about the North Houston Peanut Butter Factory watch this short clip. Have a nice day!
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