GOSHEN — The rattle of two-pound cans of meat being sealed, the high pitched hiss of steam escaping from huge pressure cookers, knives snicking against metal table tops as raw turkey is cut into small pieces and volunteers laughing as they work together are all sounds coming from a normally quiet building on Division Street in Goshen. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) meat canner is in the middle of it’s annual visit and the Depot is busy with noise, heat and lots of helping hands.

About 1000 volunteers from northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio and Michigan will cut, can pressure cook and package 68,000 pounds of turkey meat. The cans will be shipped all over the world to help feed hungry people. Ten percent, or 6,800, of the cans stay in the area for local distribution. MCC has been running the mobile canner since 1946 and last year shipped over 389,000 cans of meat. Most of the volunteers are Amish from area communities, but every year volunteers from churches in Kokomo, Ind., Archbold, Ohio, or southern Michigan also help out. In addition to helping prepare and can meat, volunteers help to set up and tear down the mobile canner.

The canner will be in Goshen from Jan. 11 through 19. For more information contact the MCC Great Lakes Office in Goshen at 534-4133.