Every year MCC’s Mobile Meat Canner travels across the United States and Canada meeting volunteers who prepare cans of turkey, beef, chicken and pork to be sent around the world. Over 30,000 people a year volunteer to fill, weigh, wash and label every can. 

Four canner operators travel with the meat canner to 34 different locations across the US and Canada and help the volunteers at each location. Apply to be a canner operator. 

See what a day in the life of a canner is like, and read the reflections of beginning canner, Tristan Pries.

Once they're finished, cans are shipped to our partners, providing important nutrients when meat is hard to purchase.

For example, in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea), where meat is scarce, MCC shares canned meat with our partners to supplement meals for children as well as patients with tuberculosis or hepatitis.

774,067 pounds of canned meat shipped last year to Burkina Faso, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Haiti, Lebanon, Ukraine, Zambia, Canada and the U.S., including Puerto Rico

Make a difference

Discover more