John Metz Schneider was a business owner and community builder. The first child of Christoph and Anna Schneider, he was born in Berlin (later Kitchener) on February 17, 1859. He grew up on the family farm but moved into Berlin as a young man to find work in the Dominion Button Works. It was there that he met Helena Ahrens, and they were married on November 8, 1883 at the Ahrens home in Berlin, Ontario. Together they had five children: Charles Alexander, Herbert John, Norman Christoph, Frederick Henry and Emma Louise.

An accident at Dominion Button Works in 1886 kept J.M. home for an extended period. His future as the founder of a major food processing company started with his efforts at this time to support his family. He and his family began to make sausages at home and J.M. sold them, door to door, even after he returned to work at the button factory. The success of this enterprise encouraged him to become a full time butcher, and in 1890 he built his own plant and shop on Courtland Avenue in Berlin . J.M. Schneider Limited became one of the most important industries in Kitchener, known around the world, its reputation based on J.M. Schneider’s personal virtues of thrift, honesty, quality and equality.

Beyond his business pursuits, Schneider was a trustee of the Church of the Good Shepherd, sang in the choir and helped lay the cornerstone of the new church in 1935. He was a member of the Board of Trade, was an alderman in 1905-1907, sponsored radio broadcasts of the Y.M.C.A. choir, and in 1938 started the Schneider Male Chorus.

J.M. died February 23, 1942 and was entombed at Woodland Cemetery, Kitchener.