From left, Ashton Boatright, Barbara Logue, Angie Brown, Edna Douberly and Rissa Self visit Moultrie every summer to take advantage of the services of the Colquitt County Canning Plant. The women live in Pierce, Wayne and Brantley counties, all of which are more than 100 miles away.

The Colquitt County Canning Plant, located on the campus of Colquitt County High School, claims to be the busiest canning plant in the state of Georgia with as many as 1,500 people taking advantage of the facility every summer.

The plant’s reputation has spread far and wide, drawing return visitors from more than 100 miles away.

Angie Brown, Rissa Self, Edna Douberly, Barbara Logue, and Ashton Boatright, come from   Pierce, Brantley, and Wayne counties each year to make homemade spaghetti sauce, homemade salsa and homemade soup, and to put up tomatoes.

“We stay in a hotel here in Moultrie for three days and work in the canning plant sometimes ten hours a day to put up everything for the year,” Brown said.  

She praised the agriculture education teachers who run the plant — Stacey Beacham, Chad Bass, Shawn Collins, Gene Hart, Matt Howell, Eddie Murray, and Adrienne Smith — but Beacham, the agriculture education department head, said they’re just glad to help.

“We see many repeat customers that come every week in the summer time,” he said. “We also have people who have lived in the community their entire lives and didn’t know about the canning plant come in.  The ag teachers are here to help the customers and teach them how to put up their food so no prior knowledge is needed to use the canning plant.”