Farmers from Prince Edward Island have donated 18 million pounds of potatoes to food banks across Canada – Potato News Today

The bad news is that potato growers from Prince Edward Island are currently facing a federal government-imposed ban on potato supplies to the U.S. due to the detection of potato warts in some provincial crops.

How Darren Taylor reports for Sootoday.comthe good news is that PEI farmers are sending millions of pounds of edible potatoes – before it dies – through Toronto’s Second Harvest to food banks in communities across Canada.

About 18 million pounds of potatoes – or about 300 trucks – are shipped. This is about six percent of the total loss of seed potatoes that PEI farmers cannot export.

The Emergency Food Security Fund has allocated $ 3.5 million to Second Harvest to purchase surplus PEI potatoes from producers funded by Canada’s agriculture and agri-food. Second Harvest bought potatoes for $ 2 million, of which £ 12 million, and the remaining $ 1.5 million was used to cover transportation costs to food banks across Canada.

Second Harvest is Canada’s largest food recovery organization. “This is an unfortunate situation (for PEI growers), but for us we are happy to be able to prevent the disappearance of this food, as well as deliver it to organizations that serve communities,” Madison said. Maguire, head of operations at Second Harvest.

Source: Sootoday.com. Read the full story here
Photo and related article: “Welcome Hall gets potatoes to feed the needy, not destroy the potatoes,” says McWatson, who personally bought and sent PEI potatoes. Photo credit Welcome Hall Mission