Free potatoes feed residents of Grant, Adams counties and beyond

GRANT AND ADAMS COUNTIES — As if 2020 didn’t have plenty of names already, it will also go down in history as the Year of the Great Potato Giveaways.

The restaurant shutdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in Washington farmers having potatoes that they can’t possibly unload on the badly constricted market. This, coupled with slashed contracts for next year’s crop, could be disastrous for many potato growers, said Chris Voigt, executive director for the Washington Potato Commission. So, many of them have taken to donating what they can to people who can use them.

On April 29, a group of farmers spearheaded by the Wollman family of the Warden Hutterian Brethren gave away about 36,000 pounds of potatoes in the space of about 90 minutes in Ritzville. Members of local churches and elected officials gathered at the distribution site early in the morning, volunteering their time to load the bags of potatoes into the cars of those who came. Residents benefited, but so too did food banks from across the region, which left Ritzville with trunks full of potatoes to be further distributed to those they’re serving during the crisis.

“The concern about food availability is getting louder,” said Stephen McFadden, Adams County economic development director. “You could tell from some of the folks how important a 15-pound bag of potatoes is to them at this moment, because COVID-19 has had a profound impact on individuals and their household income.”

“We thought it’d be a good idea to try to get creative and try to move some potatoes,” said Marvin Wollman.

Another giveaway followed the next day in Moses Lake, when over 1,000 people lined up for 15-pound bags of spuds. By afternoon, the better part of 60 pounds had been dispersed.

Currently, Martinez Farms of Warden has a warehouse full of about 7,000 tons of potatoes, and is giving them away to anybody who wants them, by the bag, or bucket or truckload. Owner Frank Martinez, 69, has been growing potatoes since he was 12 and has run his own farm in the Warden area for nearly 40 years.

“I’m looking at the future,” he said, “and if these potatoes are going to waste, I might as well give away as many as I can.”

Martinez said with the closure of restaurants across the world, big potato processors like McCain Foods and Lamb Weston have very nearly shut down, leaving a lot of potatoes sitting in storage sheds like his. The giveaways are making a tiny dent in the state’s huge, 200,000-ton potato stockpile.

Since last Tuesday when he announced that he was giving away potatoes, Martinez said that around 100 people — many from food banks on the west side of the state — have come to his giant potato storage shed on the north side of Warden to get what they can.

Martinez said some have come with bags and buckets and boxes, while a few have come to get their empty pickup trucks filled with potatoes. One worker at a Yakima medical clinic came up to get a half-ton of potatoes to share with everyone at the clinic.

Martinez’s son Juan added they’ve had people from as far away as Idaho and Montana come and get potatoes.

A second Martinez storage facility lies empty, he said, thanks to an earlier major sale to Canadian potato processors.

“Early on they had a shortage of potatoes because of the frost,” Martinez said. “Now they have plenty.”

But Martinez added he will still need the storage space this summer.

“There’s a new crop coming in July,” he said.

“We always say that our farmers feed the world,” said McFadden, “and today they’re feeding their neighbors in a crisis.”