Soup Mix. During soup production, we blend a nutritious soup mix. We continue to rely on God for the provision of necessary products. Dried vegetables, pasta, legumes, herbs, and spices all form part of the mix. You can view more information about the soup season here. 

Fruit Drying. Every summer, packers from the Central Valley donate their cull peaches and nectarines.  From June through the end of August, over 1,200 youth from all over California, other states, and Canada, come to process the fruit. It takes approximately 80 people to run the fruit line efficiently. Fruit must also be picked up from the field after being dried. Working in the California heat is a character building experience for most teams that come to serve. You can read further information about the fruit season or learn about our summer staff internship.

Trays and Pallets. A key factor for the fruit season is to have enough trays for drying our fruit. During fruit processing, older trays can break. Each year we need volunteers to repair or replace these broken or worn out trays and pallets.

Maintenance. Maintaining this ministry and keeping everything shipshape requires much work.  We are always in need of volunteers, whether you are a skilled craftsman or a willing helping hand. We need maintenance throughout the whole year.

We need mechanical, refrigeration, and electrical engineers, painters, construction workers, plumbers, welders, groundskeepers, builders, and equipment maintainers, as well as general handy men and women.

Buckets. We wash thousands of donated buckets. Each bucket and lid is washed thoroughly by hand and put through a sterilizer. The buckets are used to package and ship the dried fruit. They are highly prized in the receiving locations, due to their usefulness for fetching water and as storage containers. Every summer we need about 23,000 buckets.