Volunteers Are Essential in Welfare Processing Plants

By Walter Cooley, Church Magazines

By packaging 24-ounce packets of pudding for one afternoon at the Church’s dairy processing plant in Salt Lake City, John Ellsworth and his son, Scott, fulfilled their ward’s welfare assignment for the month. The four-hour shift was also an opportunity for a father to teach his 19-year-old son about some of the projects the Church operates beyond its three-hour Sunday meetings.

“We could have sat at home or worked in the yard,” Brother Ellsworth said at the end of his assignment. “But when I go home tonight, I will know that I have made a difference and done something worthwhile.”

Member volunteers like Brother Ellsworth are an indispensable resource at the dairy plant and at the Church’s other 18 welfare processing plants. These facilities produce the peanut butter, nonfat dry milk, beef, raisins, macaroni, canned fruit, soap, and other products that will stock thousands of shelves in bishops’ storehouses. Church-owned processing plants make most of the food products distributed to bishops’ storehouses in the United States.

Last year members of the Church donated more than four million hours at welfare farms, facilities, and processing plants. This volunteer work demonstrates a fundamental principle of the welfare program.

The Church’s welfare handbook instructs: “Providing for the poor and needy in the Lord’s way means that the giver helps those who are less fortunate by giving according to what he has received from God.”

Members give to the welfare program through fast offerings, humanitarian aid donations, and fulfilling assignments to serve in welfare processing plants and canneries.

Processing plants help package or can food items shipped to the plant from Church welfare farms. For example, in Church processing facilities, wheat is ground into flour, milk is made into butter, tomatoes are stewed for salsa, and flour is used to make bread. Members fulfill the labor needs at processing facilities when they volunteer.

“I think volunteering is one way to show that you are grateful,” said Vicki Green of the Salt Lake Butler Stake. Sister Green signed up through her Relief Society to fulfill one of her ward’s shifts at the dairy plant. While packaging cheese during her assignment, she said she didn’t realize the number of items produced by the Church.

Although the Church produces several dozen products, the more impressive fact in the eyes of visitors from other faiths is the willingness of members to volunteer. Visitors frequently ask, “How do you get people to come and do this?”

President Hinckley answered this question when he said: “We seek no commendation or thank-yous. It is compensation enough that when we help one of the least of these our Father’s children, we have done it unto Him and His Beloved Son” (“I Was an Hungred, and Ye Gave Me Meat,” Ensign, May 2004, 58).

Robert Davis is one such member who frequently volunteers at the dairy plant simply for the satisfaction of doing something to help some of the Lord’s other children. “I’m retired now,” Brother Davis said. “I like to be of service. It makes me feel more worthwhile.”

Other retired members are donating time, up to 32 hours per week, to welfare facilities as Church service missionaries. Of the 12,225 Church service missionaries, one in four serves in a welfare facility. These missionaries receive a calling to serve locally from their stake president.

Shelba and LaDell Steadman from the West Jordan Utah Mountain View Stake serve one afternoon per week at the Church’s dairy plant on Welfare Square. After their first day at the plant, the Steadmans drove home and were so tired they took a nap in the car before going into their house. Elder and Sister Steadman have watched members discover the joy of serving since they began their own service mission early in 2005.

“I think members enjoy what they are doing,” said Sister Steadman. “Many say, ‘I didn’t know this was so much fun. I want to come back.’”

During the afternoon, Sister Steadman and her volunteers packaged almost 3,600 pounds (1,630 kg) of cheese. Meanwhile Brother Davis, Brother Ellsworth, and three other priesthood brethren boxed and organized cases of pudding. The men are from different wards and didn’t know each other before their shift began; nevertheless, they were united in their desire to help others.

“It’s a wonderful system,” Brother Ellsworth said. “My high priests group leader gets up on Sunday and says we need a few brethren, and they show up. It’s the army of the Lord.”

Church-Owned Processing Plants

Bakery—Salt Lake City, Utah

Dairy—Salt Lake City, Utah

Meat—Spanish Fork, Utah

Mill—Kaysville, Utah

Pasta—Kearns, Utah

Soap—Salt Lake City, Utah

Church-Owned Canneries

Boise, Idaho

Denver, Colorado

Houston, Texas

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Lindon, Utah

Mesa, Arizona

Murray, Utah

Ogden, Utah

Sacramento, California

Salt Lake City, Utah

Seattle, Washington

St. George, Utah

Washington, D.C.

Jeane Sargent, a volunteer from the Salt Lake Butler Stake, packages cheese at the Church-owned processing plant. (Photograph by Adam C. Olson)

Cheese is just one of many products produced and processed by the Church with volunteer help.