b'Tackling Food Insecurity at ScaleTwelve million pounds of Manitoba processing spuds are on route to hunger-mitigation agencies across North America. It could be just the start.BY: MADELEINE BAERGTHERES NOTHING BETTER than a full storage bin full of great quality potatoes except when those potatoes just arent sellable. Last falls record harvest of processing spuds means many growers are currently storing more potatoes than processors can manage. As winter turns towards spring and growers need space to store seed for the upcoming season, some are grappling with what to do with crop that needs to move. For farmers who have invested months of time, effort and cost into a growing season, then months of time, effort and cost into carefully storing those spuds, the options arent great: dehydrating for starch or potato flakes, sending to livestock feed, orthe least desirablecomposting.Aside from the financial hit, sending perfectly market-ready potatoes to a non-food end-use is upsetting, especially knowing that there are people in our ownPart of Acadian Hutterite Colonys six million pound bulk donation being sorted into smaller communities and around the world whoboxes for distribution.arent able to place adequate food on theirThere are some bottlenecks. [Larger foodthe comments was, Its not as easy as you own and their childrens plates.security charities] will take control of thethink. You cant necessarily just dump all So what about food banks? In Canada,potatoes and then distribute to the smalleryour potatoes into cattle feed, says Stamper. demand for food banks has risen to thefood banks, but it is a matter of: how do youAt an October board meeting, Keystone highest level ever. In Canada, demandget the potatoes there? Whos paying forPotato Producers Associations (KPPA) new in 2023 was up 78.5 per cent over pre- transport? Whos packaging the potatoes?general manager, Susan Ainsworth, brought pandemic 2019 levels. Seventeen per centUnfortunately, that complexity oftenup the possibility of connecting with an of food bank clients are employed but notmakes growers back off. They think its tooorganization called the Farmlink Project.able to make ends meet without support.complex; its too expensive, says VictoriaFarmlink is a Los Angeles-based Canadian foodbanks see more than twoStamper, general manager of the Unitedorganization that works across North million visits each month. 642,257 of thePotato Growers of Canada. America to connect farms that have surplus mouths fed in a month are children. On topAlready last fall, Canadas potatofood with hunger-fighting charities across of rising demand, food banks are strugglingproducer organizations were starting to talkCanada and the United States. Established with increasing costs and decreasingabout possible solutions for surplus 2023at the start of the pandemic by a group donations. potatoes. of college students, Farmlinks goals are It seems like an obvious match: someThere were some processors that had saidto feed people in need, reduce carbon farmers have extra food; food banks are inthey just didnt need that many potatoes,emissions, and empower the next generation critical need of donations. But, as any farmerthat we were either going to have to destroyof changemakers. It achieves that by acting who has tried to donate farm products atthe potatoes or dispose of them. As we wereas communications, logistics and support scale knows, the issue is in the details.talking about methods of disposal, one ofbetween growers, cash/service donors and 32SPUDSMART.COMSpring 2024'