LDS Welfare Cannery
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has always been sensitive to the need to take card of the sick and needy. They view this as a responsibility that Heavenly Father requires Saints to fulfill. Galatians 6:2 states, “bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
In accordance with the command to bear one another’s burdens the Church has set up a welfare program for its members and also a relief organization that provides humanitarian service. About a mile west of downtown Salt Lake City is 13.5 acres of Church owned land. On this area is a bakery, cannery, dairy plant, thrift store, a storehouse, and employment center. This has been called Welfare Square, and is used to provide items and assistance to families in need.
The cannery on Welfare Square is only one of 47 Church cannery buildings that can be found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The cannery facilities are specifically made to bottle products like spaghetti sauce, salsa, applesauce, and jams that are too acidic to be put in metal cans. The products are then sent to bishop’s storehouses all over the world for distribution to families in need.
Members near Church cannery facilities are asked to volunteer and help in the production of the food. Volunteers just in Salt Lake City donate over 200,000 hours of labor on Welfare Square in a year. President Marion G. Romney spoke of the gift that both the giver and receiver get through the LDS Cannery program:
- We are anxious to make our people independent, industrious, and self-sufficient. We want to accomplish this in a way which will be sanctifying to the giver as well as the receiver. When we can understand this principle, our current welfare activities will take on more meaning (Marion G. Romney, “Work and Welfare: A Historical Perspective,” Ensign, May 1982, 87).
The canneries provide much more than just food to be stored in the Bishop’s Storehouses. Facilities can be used by those outside of the Church to provide for different organizations such as hospitals. Excess food that is provided by Church farms is often canned and donated to food banks. The Church also encourages individuals to use the canneries to begin or add to their own food storage. Church leaders encourage that each family have its own reserve of food in case or personal emergency, such as the loss of a job, or for natural disasters.
For More Information about the LDS Church's Welfare Programs and Humanitarian Services visit:
