Woodinville Hauls Potatoes Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. It’s no secret, the closure of restaurants, schools and many food services has clogged the food supply chain, but one Western Washington community may have provided some “food for thought” with a partial solution.
Woodinville Mayor Elaine Cook says it began with a Bothell man who knows a potato farmer from Othello …
COOK … “And he posted on Facebook, he must have learned through his friend, that this farmer had a surplus of potatoes that had no place to go.”
That post was looking for volunteers to go over an pick up some potatoes and bring them back for food banks, which Cook says was seen by a friend of hers …
COOK … “She saw the post and thought, well I have a truck, she could help, and she knows people with trucks. And, so she reached out to the Woodinville Rotary and channels that she has and, I think, four or five people with trucks went out a week-and-a-half ago to Othello and brought back 12,000 pounds of potatoes and 6,000 pounds of onions and quickly distributed them.”
But, Cook says not before the produce was bagged …
COOK … “So, they gathered people and they conjured up a whole bunch of volunteers to bag those potatoes. And, by Wednesday of last week, they were distributed to food banks from Everett to Woodinville to Bothell to Kenmore to Redmond to Shoreline. And, not just food banks, but senior centers.”
Listen tomorrow and find out how that trip to Othello was only the first and what could lie ahead for food banks on both sides of the Cascades.
To learn more, there is a Facebook page called EastWest Food Rescue, and an email address set up. It’s eastwestfoodrescue@gmail.com
