Welfare Square Facilities Dedicated

On 5 September President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated recently constructed or renovated facilities of Welfare Square, located on 13.5 acres southwest of downtown Salt Lake City. Members of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Presiding Bishopric, and Relief Society General Board attended the dedication ceremony, along with other religious and civic leaders.

The new or updated facilities include a 22,000-square-foot cannery, a 50,000-square-foot milk processing plant, a new bakery, and a remodeled Employment Services Center and on-site Deseret Industries. Welfare Square products are supplied to Latter-day Saints and others in need throughout the world.

In his dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley petitioned that Welfare Square might bless the lives of those afflicted by “the vagaries of nature and man’s inhumanity to man.”

During his remarks, he said that “there is no greater work than this.” Welfare Square helps fulfill “the commandment of the Lord to provide for those who find themselves unable to care for their needs. … Here the recipients of help may come and work and thus feel that they are earning that which they receive.”

President Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor in the First Presidency, and President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, also shared messages during the program. President Monson spoke of how he has seen Welfare Square bless others throughout his life. President Faust said that “welfare is not a program, but the essence of the gospel in action.”

Other speakers at the dedication included Presiding Bishop H. David Burton; Relief Society general president Mary Ellen W. Smoot; and the Most Reverend George H. Niederauer, Roman Catholic bishop of the Salt Lake Diocese.