Giving Away Potatoes

“There is no joy in possession without sharing.”

You might think having a surplus when you are a potato farmer can't be called a problem.

Ferment and distill some towards vodka?

Counter inflation and bring down French fry prices?

Forever counter ammunition problems for potato cannons everywhere?

Well, let me introduce you to Isaiah Hofer. Isaiah is notable first and foremost because he has reached a very unlikely pinnacle in his life. He can rightly be called a Manitoba potato baron.

Hopefully, however, we can hope that his life is defined more by the story below.

Hofer recently averted catastrophe by donating a staggering twelve (12!) million pounds of potatoes (5.4 million Kilograms) to counter food insecurity across Canada, North America and beyond.

Twelve. Million. Pounds. Of. Potatoes.

Hofer, a farmer in the hamlet of Carberry, found himself buried under a veritable mountain of excess tubers following last year's remarkably bountiful potato harvest. He recalls:

"We had at least almost 100,000 bags of surplus potatoes."

Each bag held about 100 pounds.

With supply eclipsing demand across most Canadian potato farms, there was no obvious solution to where to send the excesses. And so, Hofer responded favorably and quickly when he was contacted by the Farmlink Project.

Farmlink is an American non-profit, founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, dedicated to collecting excess produce from farms and other food donors across America and delivering it to organizations that serve food insecure communities. With a destination for the excess potatoes found, the next part was the logistics. Hofer agreed to provide the labor, a company called Simplot Canada provided the packaging, and 115 trucks did the transportation.

The potatoes arriving in Ottawa. (Photo Courtesy of the CBC)

Soon the potatoes were en route to places as disparate as Toronto, Vancouver, San Diego and New Mexico. In Ottawa alone, over fifty local organizations benefited from the delivery of nearly 40,000 pounds of potatoes. "We call it the Ottawa Great Potato Rescue," effused Wendy Leung of food re-distributors FoodSharing Ottawa, "You have no idea what this means to the community."

Hofer was just glad to help:

"When you're blessed with so much, it's just good to give back ... and I'm just glad we could do that."