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Andrew Keeler probably cans turkeys in his sleep. That’s because when he’s awake and on the job, he helps process up to 5,000 2-pound cans of turkey meat per day.
Keeler, the 2008 Bluffton High School grad and 2012 Bluffton University grad, is part of the four-person Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) mobile canning crew. For seven months each year the crew travels the United States and Canada pulling a 42-foot trailer equipped with all the canning equipment necessary for the job. During the other five months, the crew stays in Akron, Pa., the home base of the canning project.
The mobile meat canner operates in 33 different locations across the United States and Canada, from October through May. Over 10,000 volunteers a year fill, weigh, stack, wash, and label every can.
Over the 2011-2012 season, the collective efforts of all involved produced 556,586 cans (over a million pounds of meat). The finished product is shipped around the world, feeding hungry people, and investing in the future of those in need.
The crew made a weekend stop in Bluffton after a stop in Berne, Ind. Berlin, Ohio, is their next destination.
“I graduated from Bluffton University in 2012 and wanted to get involved in a volunteer assignment,” said Keeler. He applied and was accepted by MCC for a two-year volunteer term with its portable canning operation.
So far, Keeler has visited 13 states and two Canadian provinces. The crew stops in communities where volunteers have pre-arranged everything necessary to can meat. Most of the canning involves turkey, although beef and chicken are also canned occasionally.
When the canning semi visits a community volunteers in advance have raised funds to purchase the meat to be canned. That community also fills the truck with diesel fuel. The four-persons crew usually spends the night in homes in the communities when they stop.
“Sometimes up to 100 to 150 volunteers help us. It all depends upon what community we visit,” he said.
“The food we can goes overseas to the Ukraine and North Korea. We’ve also shipped some turkey to Haiti,” said Keeler.
With a four-person crew, Keeler is preparing to obtain a CDL license. He recently obtained a CDL permit.
Prior to his MCC experience Keeler admits he had “little to no” experience in canning food. “It’s all new to me,” he said.
While at Bluffton High School Keeler participated in show choir, golf and baseball. At Bluffton University, where he majored in history, he participated in “Shining Through.” Keeler is the son of Randy and Karen Keeler of Bluffton.
