Volunteering at the Meat Packing Plant

So this morning I was up bright and early.

I was off to volunteer at the Deseret Meat Packing Facility in Spanish Fork.

 My job today was to use this meat hook.

There was a huge box of meat in front of me and I used the hook to grab the meat and throw it into another container. I did this for a few hours. I have several blisters to prove it. I can't say it smelled the best nor that I didn't feel like throwing up a few times. I had to put my head way down into these big crates to get the meat out. My little white uniform was pretty well covered in blood by the time I was done.

Here are a few more pics from other parts of the facility.

  On the left is a guy cutting into some meat. On the right is the sausage making area.

 On the left is the hot dog area. On the right is the ground beef area. The crates I was filling were brought here to be ground up.

 Both these pics are of guys cutting into the cow. You can see the cows hanging from hooks in the background.

By the time my shift was up I walked out to this view of the sun rising over the Wasatch Front.

Wanna know more about this facility and others like it. Keep on reading.

 This facility is part of a much broader network of welfare farms and factories of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of which are manned by mostly volunteers. The system is designed to provide assitance to member of the Church who are struggling financially.

In addition surplus is used to provide humanitarian assistance around the world. I visited a charity in Kentucky this last week that receives two tractor trailer loads of goods from the Church each month. They in turn distribute the goods to folks in need in the Appalachian region.

Here are a few maps that show the broad network. We distribute hundreds of million of dollars a year through this system to needy around the world.

The storehouse system is the location where finished goods are stored/staged to be able to respond to needs locally.

The production facilities are also spaced around the country to provide opportunities to serve like I had this morning. They are each unique in the type of product they are processing. I have also volunteered in a tomato cannery in Sacrament

Deseret Industries is a used clothing facility. Members of the Church in the Western USA give their used clothing to these sites. Most clothing is brought to Salt Lake to be sorted and given to those in need around the world.

Finally the employment centers scattered around the world are locations where anyone can go and get employment assistance.