Mennonite
Central
Committee

Meat Canning

 

Canned meat provides hope in Serbia and Bosnia

by Amela Puljek-Shank

“God’s blessings to those who sent and prepared this food for us.” With these words grandmother Ramiza gave thanks for donations of canned meat that she and her family received from the Bread of Life organization—a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner organization in Belgrade, Serbia.

Ramiza was grateful that she could add canned turkey meat to potatoes or rice that she cooked every day for her family. This was truly a gift to the family that is not able to have meat in their every day life – due to the fact that meat is expensive and therefore unavailable to Ramiza and her family.

Another MCC partner organization, Merhamet, is based in Bosnia and Herzegovina and uses canned turkey to prepare meals for their soup kitchens. One of the cooks said: “We use all of it. No single piece is left. We put the turkey meat in the broth. It can be fried in bread crumbs, just like chicken meat. It can be prepared in various ways if you are skilled as a cook and provide very tasty meals that provide good nutrition to our beneficiaries.”

The need for canned turkey continues to be present in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The wars in the region of Southeast Europe ended in 1996 but economic recovery is very slow. For this reason the poverty has increased sharply in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the state-run institutions are overwhelmed with those in need.

The work of Bread of Life and Merhamet is very important since it does the work that the governments are not able to do – to help those who are poor and marginalized with providing food, school and relief kits as well other kinds of support. These organizations are helping many families to survive and provide hope for the next day.

Those who are poor usually are not able to have meat in their daily meals and it is extra special to have meat and let alone meat of very high quality. This was the most surprising to our partners as well to their beneficiaries – the canned meat was of a high quality since usually those who are poor even if they get meat it is meat of very poor quality.

The shipments of canned meat together with other kinds of material aid that MCC sends to these two organizations provide significant and important help for those who are poor or on the verge of poverty.