Plant problems and amazing volunteers

This post summarizes Thursday and Friday, and I apologize for the late post, but… the end of the week was crazy and I didn't have time to find good internet to write a post.

The whole peach plant panarama style.

Thursday was crazy. We were super short staffed, running two to a side on the cutters (normally we have 4) and then the peaches were extra hard and the cutters were struggling with them. It means they were in general less goopy, but then they didn't cut correctly. In the cup-up station we were throwing away dozens of peaches per flat because they still had bits of pit in them. It was the pits.

Needless to say, we were busy. And thus I'm not sure any pictures were taken. Whoops!

Friday we had two extra day groups worth of people in so we were able to run all three cutters all day, and we were excited to get a lot more done. The machines had other plans, however and we ended up needing to improvise a different way to get the cull fruit (bad fruit/cores) out of the plant.

Here are my observations about our team: when things went wrong, our kids hopped to it. They immediately grabbed shovels and brooms and started scooping up the mess and moving it to the trash bins. Then, when people were needed to hold a board so we could keep running plant, again, it was our EHA/TGA youth that hopped in without complaint to help. While we were standing around waiting for them to figure out what had broken I had two different kids come up to me and ask if they could hop off their cutter (that wasn't running) in order to help clean up. That's the kids we have. This is why I love this trip so much. It's hard backbreaking work. And they do it with a song and a smile all day long, continually seeking and volunteering for extra work.

If you look closely in the middle of this picture you can see what went wrong: the belt is held in a loop with wire stitching that came about halfway apart. This made the belt that carries all the cull line out of the plant stop running. This created a major backup of bad fruit and cores.

The backup (and spillage) because the belt wasn't running.

Fritz came up with an awesome solution to the cull line not working, and then Zoe, Victoria, and Jonathan made it happen. They said it only got dicey when the bin would get full and they'd have to catch all the fruit and balance it on the board while they swapped the bin for a new one!

Unbeknownst to us, the issue was the belt right below this line of trays in cup-up…

Cleaning up

Micah manhandles a tray

George quickly explains to Joey how to do trays at the auger station before taking his first turn at wet peaches.

Aly was complaining that I'm never in the pictures because I'm always taking them. So she stole my phone. Here's a photo of Josh and I while confusion was happening with the belt breaking. And yes, we have matching water backpacks. Have I mentioned that it's HOT in Dinuba?

Zoe and Luke (from Dinuba)

Joey, Jared, Elizabeth, and Makoa

One more update: a couple of these kids have busted butt doing some stuff I never got pictures of. Oops. Haley, Victoria and Joey spent the morning every day cleaning bathrooms, sweeping and mopping and then doing whatever housekeeping jobs needed to be done. Specifically that means a LOT of getting rid of spider webs, and picking up garbage. Henna spent a good chunk of her day helping out in the kitchen. Sorry for the lack of photos. Normally I remember that step. I'm going to blame it on the heat!

One more picture just for Haley because she loved these plants.

Giant aloe vera plants outside the staff housing

Come back soon for a blog all about my favorite day: Saturday!

-Wendy

Soup Plant + Fun times

Wednesdays at Gleanings are a half day, the morning of which is spent in the soup plant. Students package soup mix. Each bag of mix feeds roughly 100 people! Our team worked in the plant for about an hour, and in the end packaged more than 100,000 servings of soup.

Haley and Joleen used a heat stamper to mark plastic soup bags with the manufactured and best by dates.

Jonathan, Elijah and Josh scope mix into a funnel system that fills the bag, and KK uses a heat sealer to seal the soup into the bag.

KK, Marleya (from Thousand Oaks), summer staff and Mariah working the heat sealers.

Elizabeth, Jared, Morgan, Makoa and Mariah working a filling station.

Emma spent her time ripping off bags and facing them all the same way so they are easier to fill. Check out the box to her right that she made!

Joey heat sealing a bag.

This flat contains roughly 2000 lbs of soup mix,and will make over 50,000 servings of soup!

Micah, Henna, Morgan, Morgan, Jared

Marleya is making the soup mix. Each ingredient is lined up here with a vacuum hose that measures quantity sucked up. All the ingredients go into a giant drum mixer, are thoroughly mixed and then dumped into the bins that you see in the other pictures.

In addition to packaging soup, some of our team spent time packaging dried oranges for shipping as well.

Victoria, Joey and George filling bags with dried oranges.

Jason Nick and Zoey worked sealing the orange bags.

Joey and George

The soup plant at Gleanings is run by an awesome guy from Latvia named Henrijs. He wanted to be on the blog, so here is is moving soup with the forklift at the soup plant. The first two times we came to Gleanings (2014 and 2016) Henrijs was working in the kitchen. It’s been fun to get to know him over the last several trips!

The second half of Wednesdays is time off - we spent it at the water park!

I think this is the only photo we got at the water park. Because... phones and water don’t actually mix well.

How Josh does the water park… on a chair in the shade!

And back to the base, we watched a beautiful sunset during our team meeting.

Please continue to pray for us! For bodies to stay healthy and hydrated, and for team work as we continue to work short staffed (hence no pictures from today/Thursday - we were all working too hard to bust out a camera!!)

Also pray for our leaders - we’re all going a little crazy!

Josh: “Hold on! I'm milking the Igloo!”

Aly is going bananas!

Josh isn't a huge fan of group hugs. But…they caught him anyway!

The journey of a peach

Welcome to Gleanings… today, we bring you the “journey of a peach”

Peaches arrive at Gleanings in bins on trucks from processing centers. These peaches have been rejected, bruised, and discarded. Unwanted, they arrive not knowing what their fate is.

Peaches used at Gleanings are ALL donated. They are not suitable for sale, either because they are too big, bruised, past ripe, or “mishaped”.

Summer staffer Jacob runs tower, dumping bins of peaches into the production line, then pressure washing the bins so they are ready to be refilled.

Once dumped into production, the peaches are sent to inspection:

Haley says “at inspection I am sorting peaches, looking for mush, which gets thrown away in a bin”

After inspection the peaches are sent to take a bath - everything looks better when given a good wash.

Bath time!

The water bath pushes the peaches down the line to the cutters.

Elevator going up!

The cutters split peaches in half and cut a cylinder around the pit.

Right side: Victoria, KK, Jonathan, Josh

Left side: Nick, Alissa, Makoa

Alissa says “at cutter I put the stem up on the peaches.”

Right side: summer staffer Daniel, Elizabeth and Morgan

Left side: Morgan, Zoe

Morgan Schlumberger says “at cutters you flip the peach so it's stem up and try not to zone out the best as you can cuz otherwise everything will go wrong and the louder you sing the better.”

Right side: Jared, Micah, Joleen, Henna

Left side: Simi Valley friends and Luke from Dinuba

Jared says “at cutters we make the stems stick up and if they're squishy put them on the conveyer belt.”

Henna says “it's best if you make it into a game!”

When the peaches exit the cutters they separate the cores from the peach halves and the peaches feed onto a long conveyer belt up and over to cupup

Wheeeeeee

Peaches are shaken down this ramp that helps spread them evenly onto the flats below.

“This is soooo shaky” - Peach

Peaches on flats are then “cupped up” so they can be sent to the field.

Right side: local group and summer staff

Left side: Emma, Mariah, Alyssa

Emma says “at cupup we look for peaches and make sure the flesh is sticking up instead of the skin, I usually look more for pits to remove because they are more important to get rid of”.

Full and cupped up flats travel down the path to the stacker, where they are put into stacks of roughly 22.

It's a Ferris Wheel for peaches!

Finished stack

From the stacker, forklifts take finished stacks to the sulfur gas chambers. Peaches are treated with sulfur gas to keep their color when dried (otherwise they'd turn black) and to prevent bugs. It's also a requirement for shipping overseas. The next morning the peaches are placed in the field through a process called “layout” and then another cup up process is performed to assure peaches are all flesh side up and all pits are removed.

Freshly laid out peaches

Peaches that will be picked up tomorrow, notice the color change that occurs as the peaches tan (for roughly a week depending on temperature and humidity).

On pickup day, the peach flats are restacked and brought in to the dried fruit station. The flats are then put into the auger to remove the dried fruit.

Elijah says “at dry fruit we majestically lift the pallets off of the stack and then with all of the strength we can muster you heave it onto the auger which then eats it alive and drills it down to the last peach.”

George and Jason working dried fruit. Flats exit the auger and are immediately fed back through to be reloaded with fresh fruit! George and Jason are doing a quick check and removing all broken flats.

Once through the auger the peaches feed up and are put into a bin or buckets.

Once packaged, peaches are shipped all over the world in trucks.

Staff member Amber and Victoria praying for a convoy of hope truck.

Fritz (director of Gleanings) Peach Poem

8/6/2010

If I were a peach
What would I preach,
If I were a Gleaning’s nectarine
How would I explain my doctrine?
Gleanings saved my life from going rotten
Just like you were saved by the only begotten
When I was dumped in that wooden bin
I lost my hope I could not see myself win
Until I found myself on a belt to be inspected
Some hands touched me and I felt respected
to go on and be washed in the trough
I enjoyed the swim before it got rough
Somebody forced me to lay stem up
I looked up and saw the sharp knife coming from the top
Surely my life is over I will get smashed
What a waste after I just got washed
Sliced in three pieces I lay on the belt
It happened so fast I haven’t even felt
The removal of my hard heart
I was changed in an instant made new like a piece of art
As my core was tossed to the middle
My future seemed like a riddle
What am I going to be now
What am I going to do and how
I would find out soon
They lay me on a tray to turn me into a prune
After being sulphured for the night
I gave up without a fight
I had a week to think in the field
Outward I shriveled up but inside I got healed
Ready to face the world
I fell of the tray and was hurled
Into a bucket down the shoots
And lay there with a lot of other fruits
My destiny only God knows
I will become a snack for someone God choose
God’s blessing to a hungry Child
I feel Jesus’ love and how He smiled
To use me in this way
To make some hungry persons day
I’m proud to be of use
I will travel to the end of the world like a cruise
Who could have thought that earlier day
When in that call bin I lay
That’s my message today
That if you feel low and you pray
Lord what is your plan with me
How do I hear you what is the key
God is using the broken and the bruised
About this don’t be confused
God has never anybody refused
That comes to Him with an open heart
He is ready to impart
This is the day for a new start
Don’t look at your neighbor God is talking to you
Speak to Him in faith He will make something new
Out of your life that you will never regret
So get out of the boat and get wet

God bless you all

Praying for a truck

One of the coolest things we do at Gleanings is send out trucks. When a truck is loaded and ready to go everything stops, all production, all cooking everything. The truck is surrounded, and everyone prays for the truck, the driver, the food on board and the destination. Today we prayed for a truck headed to Missouri with Convoy of Hope where it will be sorted and shipped for disaster relief.

Preparing to pray over the truck

Please join us in praying for Joel as he heads East to Missouri with this load, for safe travels, clear paths and easy passage. Also pray for the contents of this truck and the mouths that it will feed.

Instead... And 100 bins of peaches

A typical day at Gleanings looks like this:

7 AM Breakfast

8 AM Chapel

9 AM Field work

10:15 Break

10:30 Factory work

12 Lunch

1 Factory work

2:45ish Break

3 Factory Work

4:30 start cleanup

5:30 dinner

Evening activity as provided

This morning at chapel Fritz introduced us to the Gleanings theme verses for the summer which are “instead”:

Gleanings 2019 theme

Fritz challenged us to think about what our instead in our life is each and every moment - to think about the now and not so much about the later or the past. It was an awesome reminder that we serve a God of the instead.

Then, our new Gleanings team members got a factory tour while those who've been here before headed to the “field” to stack the dried peaches.

The rows waiting to be stacked

When the team finished factory orientation they made quick work of stacking the dried peaches and headed for the factory. Meanwhile, several of our team members reported for their assigned special duties: Henna is helping in the kitchen, and Victoria, Joey and Haley are helping with housekeeping duties.

The rest of the day was spent in the factory working peaches (I'll post a “journey of a peach” blog tomorrow) until cleanup time.

A few shout outs and then a bunch of pictures:

Our kids never cease to amaze me, but I watched several experienced peach workers from our group kindly step up to help those in need throughout the day today. Students gave special shoutouts to Elijah, Micah and Morgan (Schlumberger). Elizabeth volunteered not once but twice today for extra cleanup work when she could have been off for the day. Makoa wins for flexibly adjusting to help cover for missing people today. We mopped the dining hall so well they said it hasn't looked better all summer. And more than anything everyone did everything with an amazing servant attitude. They traded their grumbles for a song and sang it loud and proud!

Tomorrow will be another full day of running peaches, today we did 100 bins, which is about two thirds the goal, but since we're operating on less than half staff, I'm counting that as a major win!

Continue to pray for servant attitudes who jump in and have fun no matter how slimy peachy something is!

-Wendy

George worked super hard in dried fruit all day flipping pallets!

Working cup up

Cutters

Alissa and Alyssa rocking the cleanup crew!

Victoria and Nick on cleanup

Morgan Stol scooping up cull fruit

Be a youth Intern, they said… it'll be fun, they said…(Nick swears this actually is fun, I promise!)

Day 2: Paradise, Church and on to Gleanings

Today was a busy day. After a quick breakfast we started our day with a trip up the hill to Paradise (where Camp Fire recovery is in full swing). It was a super emotional time.

From Alyssa:

“After an uneventful trip to Chico, CA and safe arrival at Neighborhood Church, we turned the lights out at 10:30 pm in an attempt to get some rest before we conquer travel day #2. We are going to attend church with our friends Chris and Rhonda but first we are visiting the Camp fire memorial in Paradise.

It was hot and we stood on the edge of a parched canyon with a smattering of green underbrush. Rhonda had shared some statistics about the fire on our drive. At its peak, the Camp fire was burning at a rate of a football field a second. 87 crosses dotted a sharp turn on the road leading to Paradise. As dirty sneakers kicked the edge of the hot pavement, our students held their hands up to their eyes to block the sun while our guide apologized and wiped tears from his eyes. He hasn't cried in a few months; but explains it comes in waves. Most recently, he's been spending time at the high school salvaging what they can so that the students can go back in the fall. While the high school and its contents didn't burn; everything inside was contaminated and has now been cleaned to remove the toxins. After the fire they met in an empty Sears; then a warehouse. They want back in their school. They want normal.

Four members of our group stand beside a cross bearing the name of a family member. They hang the hat they've brought and take a moment before rejoining the outer edge of our group. He was the youngest victim of the camp fire. I can't stop wiping silent tears imagining a level of loss that I hope to never understand. Before we climb back in the van; we pray. We pray gathered in an imperfect huddle; in our 30 minutes at the memorial, only two trucks pass us. We pray for healing, fortification for the volunteers, gratitude for the progress but mostly just for HOPE. The Alliance Church in Paradise was spared, and Chris tells us that church attendance is on the rise, people are asking hard questions; they don't understand the endless stream of volunteers (mostly from churches) with no prior connection to Paradise.

I left a tiny piece of myself on the side of that road in Paradise. Helpless and hopeful at the same time; I climbed back in the van grateful that, for a moment, I could help shoulder a sliver of their grief.”

Crosses on the hill as you enter Paradise

A memorial for a family member

Praying for Paradise, the relief efforts, and the greater Paradise area

After we left Paradise we went to church at Neighborhood Church in Chico, where we stayed the night Saturday night. Their church meets in a large dome, a different experience for many of our youth!

Worship time

Worship time

Then, we were off! We arrived at Gleanings, got settled in, had our team meeting for the night, and the kids hit the pool! We start work bright and early in the morning. I'm looking forward to serving with this awesome TEAM.

A quick prayer request: we're really short volunteers this week. It's our team of 24 plus 7 others from other churches. Pray that our team can serve well, and that we are amazing volunteers, stepping up in ways that surprise the staff here! I know these kids can do it, I just want them to do it with the fantastic willingness and attitude they bring in a way that impacts both them and the Gleanings staff!

-Wendy

Team meeting!

Peach field

Travel Day 1

Praying before sendoff

Clifford (the big red van), Sully (the big blue van) and Wendy's van (probably needs a better name, now accepting suggestions) made it to Chico, CA with some adventures for the big vans along the way. I hear there was much Disney sing-a-long in Clifford, and have been told there might even be video evidence. Wendy's van proved the point that travelling with fewer people goes faster, and tested the distances one could go between bathroom stops managing to only arrive an hour and a half after the big vans despite the significant lead they were given (one youth had an obligation that ran late Saturday so arrangements were made accordingly to accommodate).

We were all blessed with travelling mercies despite some crazy drivers on the road, and settled down for the night. Highlights included a fashion show with the Neighborhood Youth dress up clothes, reconnecting with the Wrzesinski family (their youth group is headed home from Gleanings and staying at the same church), Uno Dare (there might be video evidence of this as well) and walks on the Neighborhood church grounds.

Our living space is being shared by a very noisy cricket that thought it a good idea to jump on poor unsuspecting Zoe and KK… but they have just… err… removed it from the premises, so maybe now we will get some sleep!

Tomorrow we will grab breakfast then head up to Paradise to pray for the community, then church back in Chico with our friends at Neighborhood Church and on the road to Gleanings!

Pray for the team to work well together, praise for safety this far, and prayers for servant hearts!

Wendy

Dress up fun

Dress up

Uno Dare