Farmers trade potatoes to Woodinville for toiletries

We have food banks that need food. Washington farmers have food they can’t sell, but also can’t get to food banks. Woodinville may have found an answer that will help everyone involved.

WA potato farmers on the brink with a billion pounds of unused spuds

It started with a call from a man in Bothell. He knew a farmer in Othello that had tens of thousands of pounds of potatoes to get rid of but no way to move them. That call started a movement that has blossomed into something amazing — a food swapping program that crosses the Cascades.

The first weekend, a half dozen people headed to the Othello farm with pickups and trailers. They came back with about 18,000 pounds of potatoes and onions. Woodinville Mayor Elaine Cook heard about it and jumped into action.

“I’ll bet you I can get the city to offer trucks,” Cook thought to herself. “So I called the city manager and said ‘I’m not taking no for an answer. I want you to go to Othello on Friday and pick up onions and potatoes.'”

By 5 a.m. Friday, Cook watched as a caravan headed east to bring back food for local food banks.

“Twenty to 30 semi-trucks and trailers left Woodinville for Othello again and brought back over 100,000 pounds of potatoes, yellow onions, and red onions,” the mayor said.

A local farmer offered space at her farm to dump and bag the haul. That’s where Mayor Cook got her hands dirty.

“I was at the farm when they came back to help unload and bag the potatoes,” she said. “I would say we probably moved 50,000 pounds of onions off of trucks and into bins.”

USDA buys $50 million of potatoes to help struggling US farmers

A GoFundMe account also raised about $10,000 for the farmers around Othello who were donating their unsold crops. That’s when the idea of food swapping was sparked. Why should the trucks heading east go over empty?

Food banks around the Othello farms told the westsiders what their food banks needed. The list included canned food and toiletries.

“It was the beginning of a swap or a trade,” Cook said. “They’re calling it East West Food Rescue, and it really is a partnership now. I think this will become something where we give something to get something. I think the relationship is only beginning.”

The farmers this group is working with have over a million pounds of potatoes and onions to give. They might also have some apples headed west soon.

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