Gleaners’ work being threatened
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Updated: July 06, 2009 7:10 AM
I have had such admiration for small-town Oliver since its citizens took a leap of faith and pulled together to save their auditorium and then the whole school. Now I cannot understand why they have not rallied to support the Okanagan Gleaners in their predicament. Indeed, we in the Valley should all rise up in indignation and support for this unique heritage site.
In 1994, a small group of citizens, agonizing over fruit they saw left to rot under orchard trees, envisioned finding a way to dry the largesse and send it to starving people the world over. Having formed a society, they needed a base for operations. They managed to obtain the use of an old, dilapidated former tobacco farm building, along with a little piece of orchard. From this small beginning rose a wonderfully functional and welcoming volunteer facility.
The ramshackle barn was gradually transformed into storage space, working areas and eventually a kitchen-dining room and bathroom facilities. Visitors, sometimes from as far away as Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and even the U.S., set up tents or trailers under the orchard trees, and were able to avail themselves of the amenities in the formerly condemned building. Working areas outdoors were eventually paved and covered to protect workers from the hot sun or occasional rain. All this has been done with no requests for help from governments or corporations. Supportive individuals and groups miraculously appeared — surely in answer to prayer.
For some years now, however, they have been denied support from the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen.
They have been designated as using agricultural land for “non farm use.” This seems to me bitterly ironic. Everything they do is connected to the produce from farms. Growers willingly donate fruit and vegetables considered unsuitable for persnickety consumer taste or for out–of–Canada trade. The Gleaners are simply happy to know such produce will be used to feed starving people. They now fill hundreds of drums each year with a dried vegetable soup mix for shipment overseas. This is a far cry from the original produce of fruit leather, destined for Mexico.
Volunteers, (mostly local, though one couple stayed all last winter) work all year, but naturally the bulk of production happens in summer. Whole families come to help and enjoy a warm social experience. Often youth groups make an eager appearance. Last January six million cups of soup were processed and shipped. Lives have been changed.
Now the regional district threatens this smoothly functioning, worthwhile enterprise. The Gleaners have been offered land south of the city — originally Crown land. Recently it has become part of Oliver proper, which means if they have to move, they will need to deal with city bylaws and other restrictions. They will also have to start building from scratch — a huge undertaking. And for what reason? It all seems cruelly unnecessary.
Indeed, it makes me wonder what is behind this action on the part of RDOS. Is there a hidden agenda here? To say the Gleaners are encroaching on agricultural land, which could be rezoned and which the owner says they may buy, leads me to compare this meticulously handled modest operation with the numerous huge buildings wineries place on agricultural land. What is the problem, after these many harmonious years? And can a heritage site be so carelessly treated? What is behind this seemingly unjust decision?
The Gleaners plan to make another appeal to the regional district for rezoning to allow them to continue their work Let us hope that hard hearts will soften, and we shall see no hindrance to this unique expression of love and faith — and selfless generosity.
Dodi Morrison is a retired educator and freelance Penticton writer. She can be reached at dodi@vip.net.
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