b'charity food providers. When a grower has aout to their growers. One such grower surplus they are willing to donate, Farmlinkorganization was the KPPA, which put sources the packaging, coordinates shippingout a call to its farmers in mid-February. and connects donations to specific locations. Almost immediately, Isaiah Hofer, farm Farmlink is the hunger-fighting charitymanager at Acadia Hutterite Colony in that recognizes logistics is the biggestCarberry, Manitoba, replied, offering up a problem to defeating hunger, says Mikewhopping six million pounds of table-ready Meyer, head of farmer advocacy for theprocessing spuds. Farmlink Project.Within a month, the whole thing was That resonated, says Stamper, whomoving, says Stamper. Farmlink stepping reached out to Meyer over email, then had aup and offering to take away the complexity chance to meet him face to face at the Potatoof making the donation has been a game Expo in Austin, Texas in mid-January. Inchanger.their chats, Meyer clarified that, no, theOur reaction [to Acadias donation] was, potatoes didnt need to be packaged orThank you! says Meyer. Canadas food even washed: Farmlink could distributeinsecurity rate is 18 per cent. In Manitoba, totes of lightly sorted, unwashed bulk. Asits 14 per cent. In Alberta, its 22 per cent. importantly, Farmlink could coordinateThe simple fact of the matter is that we cant shipping costs and logistics, leaving just thedefeat hunger without food. So, we started loading to the farmer.talking taters.Thats when we really started to get someA whole lot of taters, in fact: 150 semi-traction, discussing, okayhow do weloads from the one colony. really make this work? How can we connectWithin two weeks and thanks to a the right people to make that happen? saysgenerous donation of totes from Simplot, Stamper. trucks were rolling, with Acadia Hutterite The United Potato Growers of CanadaColonys spuds heading directly from reached out to its provincial partnerDonated potatoes bagged and ready forthe farm to charities across Ontario and organizations, who in turn reachedpickup to help fight food insecurity.Manitoba, but also into California, Texas NEW Dewulf MB 34Fully electric boxllerINNOVATIVEECONOMICALRELIABLEENJOYABLE34SPUDSMART.COMSpring 2024'