YORKTON — The newly-formed Yorkton Food Security Committee recently distributed 30,000 pounds of potatoes to people in the Yorkton area, including multiple Indigenous communities.
Thanks to the combined efforts of local partners and volunteers, families across the Yorkton area were able to benefit from the large-scale food initiative. All potatoes were given away for free. Potatoes that were not fit for human consumption were largely diverted to be used as feed for livestock, so food waste was minimal. The potatoes arrived Aug. 22 and were gobbled up by Sept. 10.
“There was multiple pick-up locations where they could have accessed it, so we don’t formally know everyone in every community that accessed,” said Martha Gares, the program manager for the Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours (SIGN) Housing Support in an interview with SaskToday.
The committee is comprised of representatives from the City of Yorkton, the Salvation Army Food Bank, St. Andrew's Stop-Gap Food Shelf, the Love Bus, Yorkton Community Fridge and Bruno's Place.
Through her involvement with the Yorkton Community Fridge and her work with SIGN, Gares is signed up for the Second Harvest app, which sends out a message for a food rescue.
“Usually that’s just at a local business that signed up,” said Gares. “Basically, they have some food that’s going to expire soon, but if someone can pick it up before then, then they can claim it.”
Second Harvest facilitated the donation of full or half trailers of farm-fresh potatoes for any agency signed on for Second Harvest in Saskatchewan. Gares described it as a Canada-wide food rescue agency that is trying to prevent food waste.
Smith Steel supplied the equipment needed to unload the shipment and offered warehouse space to safely store the potatoes. SIGN supported the effort by allowing the use of its Broadway location as a public pick-up site, which was the largest distributor of the potatoes. The food was also also distributed through agencies involved in the Yorkton Food Security Committee, along with other community agencies in and around Yorkton.
Gares said she doesn’t know how many potatoes would be in 30,000 pounds, but there were 12 pallets with large bags that she said were the size of a full-grown adult. She believes a farm must have had an excess of potatoes available, and then they put out a call to Second Harvest so that anyone interested could access the spuds.
Within 48 hours of saying they would accept the food, the potatoes had arrived.
“I contacted Second Harvest back. I said yes, we would be interested, and we’d like to get just a half trailer of potatoes. They contacted me sooner than we thought and said that another community wasn’t able to take their donation any more, and asked if we would like to take a donation earlier than we were expecting,” said Gares.
Potatoes were good to distribute because they also have a longer shelf life and have a variety of uses.
The Yorkton Food Security Committee says it hopes to have continued successful projects and garner more support for Yorkton Food.
