LDS Church’s New Pasta Plant in Kaysville

The LDS Church’s new Deseret Mill and Pasta Plant is already producing thousands of pounds of spaghetti and macaroni on a daily basis, to help feed the poor. It was dedicated last Thursday night by Gerald Causse, a member of the church’s Presiding Bishopric. I did a Standard-Examiner story about the dedication and media tour.

The grain silos hold 16 millions pounds of wheat. The mill processes 200,000 pounds of grain in 24 hours, including hard red wheat, soft white wheat and durum wheat. The durum wheat is ground into semolina, the raw product for the pasta.

In just one hour, the Italian-made pasta machinery can extrude, dry and package 1,700 pounds of spaghetti and 1,300 pounds of “short goods” such as macaroni and ribbon pasta. A third line packages macaroni and cheese at a rate of up to 60 boxes per minute.  It operates on 24-hour shifts.

This is the church’s only pasta plant, and it was built alongside the wheat mill that has been a familiar Kaysville landmark for over 100 years. The Church’s old Kearns pasta plant, begun in the 1960s, was closed down.  After 37 years of use, the equipment at the Kearns site was “tired,” said Don L. Johnson, director of production and distribution for the Church’s Welfare Services. Consolidating the plant alongside the existing wheat mill in Kaysville made sense, “so we don’t have to transport wheat across the Salt Lake Valley.”

The gigantic pasta-making equipment was purchased from an Italian company, Fava.  Johnson said that company officials have praised the color and quality of the pasta, and asked the source of the durum wheat used in making it.  Johnson said it is raised on Church-owne farms in Idaho and Montana.

“We told them it was the Lord’s wheat, and we just help Him take care of it,” said Johnson with a smile.

Gerald Causse also deemed the pasta as top quality. He should know. Caussé, a French native, was once the general manager of Pomona, France’s largest food distributor.

“The Church has always believed that we must provide only the finest quality to the Lord’s poor,”

Causse said. “We could produce a lesser quality product. But when we serve the needy, we serve our brothers and sisters and sons and daughters of God. As a consequence, we produce the very best….Maybe this is why the pasta is so good. It is made by people whose hearts are filled with love.”

Causse also joked that he was probably asked by Church President Thomas S. Monson to dedicate the facility “because my accent was the closest they could find to Italian.”

The pasta and the other products made and packaged at the plant will go to the 110 bishop’s storehouses across North America, where it is allocated to people in need. They are also sent as part of emergency relief efforts around the globe. Church members can buy the products for their own use at the 100 home storage centers located across North America.

Kevin Smith, a line technician who helped conduct tours, said 100,000 servings of pasta could easily be made in a day.

Why pasta?

“Pasta is a staple of many diets, and you can use it in a lot of different meals. It’s relatively inexpensive to produce, and it stores well,” said said Andrew Seelos, president of the Kaysville Utah Central Stake. He oversees the plant’s volunteer workforce. There are 24 employees and 30 volunteer service missionaries. Hundreds of other church and community members volunteer for four-hour work shifts on an occasional basis..

In addition to pasta-making, the facility also produces pancake and cake mixes in 1,500-pound batches. It packages white and whole wheat flour, the cake and pancake mix, gravy, potato pearls granola, creamy wheat cereal, rolled oats, rice, beans, whole wheat, oats, potato flakes, sugar, apple slices, macaroni, spaghetti bites, dried carrots and dried onions.

The Kaysville site  has a long milling history. The first mill was built by the Kaysville Milling Company in 1905. The site was purchased by the LDS Church in 1942. In 1982, the Church did a major upgrade to automate the plant.

Church officials who spoke at the dedication said the plant Church officials who spoke at the dedication said the plant will help the Welfare services in its purposes to care for the poor and needy, foster self-reliance and encourage service to others.

Carole M. Stephens, a counselor in the General Relief Society presidency, reminisced about her own experiences working on the Farr West LDS Stake Farm that grew green beans, potatoes and corn. The products were canned and used to feed the poor.

“It was fun to gather as families and pick as fast we could to get those beans picked,” she said. “We knew we were doing something more than just picking beans. We knew we were going to a sacred place and we were going to serve others…Sometimes the greatest harvest is the harvest of souls — mine included.”