gallons and gallons of raw meat

Last Thursday, Brian and I headed to the MCC building to volunteer with the meat canning process. I may not have all of the details correct, but the deal is people donate money to pay for the meat and other supplies, and then MCC sends a canning truck around with long-term volunteers who know the process, and then local people come volunteer to get the job done. The meat is sent around the world to people who need it. See it in action here. Though I signed up for washing and labeling cans, where they needed help was actually in the canning process. Our job was to reach into a huge vat of partially cooked turkey, pick up handfuls, and put it into cans, which were then sent down the line to be weighed, lidded, and put into a large container to be lowered into the boiling water for canning. So much turkey! It smelled like Thanksgiving...except also a little bit sickening. However, I'm so glad they made the switch to turkey a few years back. I remember in high school when they still did beef, I thought I would never do it again because the smell was so horrible. I think the report is that during the four or five (?) days they were here, 24,000 lbs. / 13,000 cans of turkey were canned.