Thousands of pounds of potatoes up for grabs in Quesnel – Quesnel Cariboo Observer

Cindy Mighton and Coral Byrd with the Quesnel GreenHope Society stand by a number of the potatoes up for grabs contained in the Quesnel Group Residing Affiliation. (Rebecca Dyok picture — Quesnel Observer)

Cindy Mighton and Coral Byrd had been busy alerting native not-for-profits of a 66,000-pound donation of potatoes that arrived in Quesnel early Monday, June 13. (Rebecca Dyok picture — Quesnel Observer)

Joshua Duris with Parallel Welding, Fabrication Ltd. helped transfer the potatoes into the Quesnel Group Residing Affiliation. (Rebecca Dyok picture — Quesnel Observer)

Selecting up some potatoes was Tony Goulet with the Quesnel Tillicum Society. “It’s incredible,” Goulet mentioned on Monday, June 13. “We’ll positively be capable of use them.” (Rebecca Dyok picture — Quesnel Observer)

“Anybody coming by gained’t be capable of go away with none potatoes,” Cindy Mighton and Coral Byrd quipped exterior the Quesnel Group Residing Affiliation (QCLA).

On Monday, June 13, 66,000 kilos of Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) potatoes had been being offloaded by forklift operator Joshua Duris with Parallel Welding, Fabrication Ltd.

The potatoes had been secured by the Quesnel GreenHope Society, which works with Second Harvest, a Canadian meals rescue charity rescuing surplus meals earlier than it results in the landfill.

“Second Harvest was lucky sufficient to get a donation of one million kilos of potatoes from the federal authorities that bought the potatoes from P.E.I.,” Mighton mentioned.

Usually, the potatoes would have been offered in the USA.

Shipments, nonetheless, had been briefly suspended till earlier this spring attributable to wart fungus, a soil-borne fungus that the Canadian Meals Inspection Company says reduces yield and makes potatoes unmarketable however poses no threat to human well being or meals security.

“We see firsthand that there’s a variety of starvation in Quesnel, and we fear about it as a result of we’ve lots of people that must get repeat hampers which isn’t very best,” Mighton mentioned, including the GreenHope Society hopes to open a drop-in meals financial institution.

The P.E.I. potatoes arrived by truck from Toronto and got here pre-packaged in 10 and 20-pound luggage.

They are going to be out there on the QCLA till gone.

“We have now so many hungry individuals,” Byrd mentioned, noting the GreenHope Society will likely be sending a truckload of potatoes to Wells, Nazko, McLeese Lake and Hixon.

“On Tuesday (June 14), we’ll open it to the group, so there will likely be potatoes for everyone and anyone.”

Among the many not-for-profit teams selecting up potatoes on Monday was the Quesnel Tillicum Society. Govt director Tony Goulet arrived with a pickup and mentioned they’d share the potatoes at their society and use them for his or her applications and upcoming occasions.

Do you’ve got one thing so as to add to this story, or one thing else we should always report on? E mail: rebecca.dyok@quesnelobserver.com

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