Thousands of Pounds of Idaho Potatoes Rescued From Waste by Volunteers During Lockdown

Illustration - David Ryder/Getty Images

One concerned Idaho citizen just couldn’t stand by and watch as mountains of produce went to waste while many Americans are going hungry. Molly Page, of Blaine County, has been coordinating a group on Facebook to respond to the impacts of the virus lockdown on local residents.

She’s also been “rescuing” Idaho spuds that local farmers can’t sell.

“I was heartbroken to see a family farmer having to just dump their crop and their livelihood,” Page told Idaho Mountain Express. “It’s a big loss for them. I thought, how can we turn that into something good for the community?”

After convincing farmers to donate the potatoes, Page organized a huge haul with dozens of people coming from far and wide to get the free produce.

With a team of 25 volunteers, along with seven pickup trucks and a medium-sized dump truck, Page went out to the farms that were advertising extra potatoes and made a big load. “It really pulled on our heartstrings to know that these small family farms are being affected by the pandemic, and that they can’t get their food out to their traditional markets,” she said.

Meanwhile, pictures of volunteers with truckloads of potatoes that Page had posted to Twitter were going viral and grabbing attention locally and around the country—attention that galvanized her volunteers, as well as the local government. Her caption read:

“It was an amazing community effort today! People think Blaine County is wealthy and glitzy, but half of the students in our schools are on free/reduced lunches. At the Hailey pile, a woman was crying at the generosity of our community. ????”

Kaz Thea, the president of Hailey city council in Blaine County, heard from Page about needing a place to distribute the potatoes, and she got on the phones to make it happen.

“I immediately called [City Administrator] Heather Dawson to ask,” Thea said. ”She suggested the Hailey Police Station on the lawn facing Fourth Street. So, I called the police chief, Steve England, to see if he would be OK with that. He said ‘absolutely.’”

Within 48 hours of the spuds being made available in the county’s two main towns, Hailey City and Ketchum, they were almost all gone. Page posted before and after pictures on Twitter that revealed just how much demand there was for the free food.

For Molly Page, the episode didn’t just show how much people in her community cared about each other, though; it also revealed just how fragile the food system really is and that more work needs to be done to make that system more secure.

The potato industry has been particularly hard hit by the collapse in demand from commercial buyers like schools, hotels, and restaurants, most of which have been shut due to government-mandated health measures.