The look of appreciation on the faces on the hard-working volunteers at Okanagan Gleaners said it all.

It’s a beautiful Friday morning in late November – nice enough that staff could be working outside chopping peppers.

Up walks Lee Chic from the Kiwanis Club of Oliver. Following behind are Mike Holt and Mark Westberg of the Aktion Club, doing their best Santa imitation – considering each had a large bag of socks strung over their shoulder.

“Here you go,” said Lee, an immense amount of pride showing.

“Thank you very much,” replied Rod Freeman, the Oliver coordinator of the Sock Campaign, and a former Gleaners board member.

Inside the two bags, 502 pairs of socks, up from the 360 pair collected one year ago.

Freeman then proceeded to show everyone exactly where the socks would be sent, and who they would help keep warm.
“Most of the time everything goes to Eastern Europe, because that’s where the need is, and that’s where it’s cold,” continued Freeman. “We cooperate with an organization called ‘The Least of These’, which was established in Oliver. These socks will go to Moldova, north of the Black Sea.”

The project has been underway for months, with Aktion Club Members going out into the community seeking donations.

“We had an Aktion Club Member go to a Kiwanis meeting and ask for socks. They were really responsive. They donated tons of socks,” said Lee Chic. “And The Painted Chair gave us a bunch. We bought some from the United Church, despite their protesting to give them to us. We just got the word out. Everybody has socks they don’t want. They’re perfectly good.”

Okanagan Gleaners, located west on Rd. 3 at Oliver Supermarket, processes donated (gleaned) vegetables into healthy and nutritious dry soup mix which is then packaged into 100 serving bags.
Volunteers annually prepare approximately five million servings which are then donated to well-established relief organizations such as World Vision Canada, Mennonite Central Committee and Mission Without Borders.
Since 1996, millions of servings have been prepared and distribute to over 50 countries around the world feeding the hungry.

The Sock Campaign is another way Gleaners can help those in need.

“It’s wonderful to see how the Aktion Club has gone to work on this. It’s something anybody can do. Lots of folks in the surrounding communities take on this project. Lots of socks and toques get donated every year,” summarized Freeman. “We’ll probably collect close to 10,000 pieces. We collect in Kelowna, right down the Valley. It’s really neat to see how many people take ownership of this project.”

Everything collected will be brought to Oliver in a big truck the morning of Dec. 3. Volunteers will congregate at Parkview Church to sort through the mounds of clothing, and and prepare the donations for the long trek to Moldova.

“This makes me feel good. It’s for people that don’t have socks and are not as fortunate,” said Holt, President of the Aktion Club. “I just find it helps people in communities that can’t afford to buy socks. And it’s a good time to do it at Christmas.”

And with that, volunteers at the Gleaners returned to the task of chopping peppers, helping to feed the hungry, comforted in the fact many will also stay warm thanks in part to the hard work of Oliver’s Aktion Club.

-Dale Cory

An update to this story: Lee Chic was quoted  as saying the following: “We bought some from the United Church, despite their protesting to give them to us.”  Though not specified in the story, she was referring to the Osoyoos United Church, and not the Oliver United Church.