Sterman Masser Farms, Sacramento, Pa., partnered with Society of St. Andrew to host the first annual Potato Palooza.
The Oct. 7 communitywide event aimed to glean and share farm-fresh food in local communities, according to a news release.
The Society of St. Andrew partners with farmers, donors, volunteers, churches, community organizations and large national movements to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste, and build caring communities to support the food insecure.
To feed the hungry and raise awareness of these issues, Sterman Masser Farms hosted the event at the Masser Seed & Research Facility in Sacramento. Thirty volunteers gathered and packed (or gleaned) 14,400 pounds of potatoes (18 bins) — the equivalent of 43,000 servings, the release said.
“Recent estimates show that roughly 40 million Americans struggle with access to the proper quantity and quality of food to live a healthy lifestyle,” Allyson Ey, operations director for the Society of St. Andrew, said in the release. “The SoSA network shares the same values of Sterman Masser to strengthen local communities and sustainably harvest and provide healthy food to our neighbors in need.”
Sterman Masser Farms and the Society of St. Andrew, the event organizer, invited various retail banners of Ahold USA as well as community members to partner in gleaning potato fields (R&D plots) that are otherwise not used in Sterman Masser Farms pack shed, Dave Masser, president of Sterman Masser Farms, said in the release.
The event has a goal to raise donations to local food pantries and food distribution agencies.
“Working in partnership with SoSA, we were excited to ‘Grow experiences that Nourish’ and give back to our local community members,” Lela Reichart, executive vice president of Sterman Masser Farms, said in the release. “As an eighth-generation, family-owned potato farm, we are committed to serving those in need, especially when we can provide much-needed nourishment.”
