MCC meat canners start season with memories from Malawi

As Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) meat canners started the 2025-2026 canning season in October, they had a stronger motivation for canning meat than ever before.

Three of the four-member crew have now met people in Malawi – prisoners and refugees – who needed the canned meat that MCC’s partners distributed. The fourth member of this year’s crew is new.

Every year, the canners − a group of three to four young men − accompany MCC’s mobile cannery to about 27 locations in 10 states. In each place, they work together with hundreds of local volunteers to preserve chicken, turkey or pork in cans and pack them for shipping.

By the end of the 2024-2025 canning season in April, MCC had 519,316 cans of meat to send to those in need throughout the world. In May, MCC took the canners on a learning tour to Malawi so they could see the impact of their work.
 

Staff from the Mennonite Brethren Church in Malawi, an MCC partner, introduced the canners to people who had received canned meat at Dzaleka Refugee Camp. The camp was set up more than 30 years ago for refugees who have fled violence primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. Currently, almost 60,000 people live in the camp.

“The refugee camp was daunting with how much need there is there,” says canner Matt Buller, of Henderson, Nebraska, “but it was also impressive just to see how they were getting along. They had pretty strong community, not just with foreign aid, but with what they had there.”

Canner Andrew Widrick, of Lowville, New York, whose two-year term was complete after the trip, remembers one woman who received five cans of meat. “Even though she doesn’t have much, she shared one can with one of her neighbors that didn’t get any. That was kind of shocking. Even though they don’t have anything, they’re still willing to share what little they got.”

When each shipment arrives, the church distributes it to a different group of people than those who had received canned meat before. The church also distributes MCC comforters and hygiene supplies and offers trauma healing workshops and peacebuilding training in the camp. 
 

MCC also sends canned meat to Malawi Prison Service. The canners were surprised to learn that the prison distributes one can of meat to each prisoner several times a year, instead of using the meat as part of prison meals. Having nothing to open the cans, the prisoners said they rub the cans against rocks to loosen the lids.

“At one of the prisons, the meat helped them stave off malnutrition just enough so that they were able to get back to being healthy,” says Buller, repeating what a prison official told the canners. “It doesn’t feed them year-round, but it was enough to keep them nourished.”

Widrick admits to feeling a little discouraged by the scope of the need compared to what MCC can provide.

“I wish I could change how much meat people got. There are so many people in need that we’re trying to help,” he says. “It is not just the people in Malawi that need help. People everywhere need help, and we can’t just focus on one location.”

Nevertheless, he says, cans of meat make a world of difference to whoever receives them. 
 

The goal for the canners this year is to fill about 600,000 cans, says George Eckman, the canning and trucking coordinator for MCC U.S.  In Ontario, Canada, where a permanent canning site opened in January, MCC expects to add about 60,000 cans annually.

This year’s mobile canning crew, pictured at the top of this story, includes Buller; Lars Braun of MacGregor, Manitoba; Kenan Broersma of Harlan, Kentucky; and a new member, Thomas Carter of Honeoye Falls, New York. They run the cannery where the meat is cooked and the cans are sealed. All of the meat is prepared according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards, and each canning site is inspected by a USDA official.
 

Each year, about 30,000 volunteers help with some part of the process.

“We really value them partnering, walking beside us as we can meat,” says Eckman. “When someone in Ethiopia is eating a can of food, it’s not just because of us but because of the volunteers. We appreciate them.”

The verse he used to challenge the canners this year is Galatians 6:9 (NIV): “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

“We’re going full blast with all that we can do,” he says.