Free spuds arrive in Kootenai County
Allan Dykstra, facilities manager at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, operates a forklift and moves palates of potatoes into a building on Monday.
BILL BULEY/Press
BILL BULEY/Press Allan Dykstra, facilities manager at the Kootenai County Faigrounds, moves potatoes into a buiding on Monday.
COEUR d’ALENE — Fifty-thousand pounds of potatoes rolled into the Kootenai County Fairgrounds Monday morning.
That afternoon, they rolled back out, bound for North Idaho food banks.
“Our director had this crazy idea to bring potatoes to northern Idaho because there’s a big glut in southern Idaho,” said Bob Smathers, regional manager of Idaho Farm Bureau for North Idaho. “They’re even talking about having to dump potatoes down there, which is unfortunate.”
Palates of potatoes — about 1,000 bags, 50 pounds each — were removed from the truck via a forklift operated by Allan Dykstra, facilities manager of the fairgrounds, and set in a building.
Joe Dobson is president of the Kootenai/Shoshone Farm Bureau, which paid for the potatoes. The state Idaho Farm Bureau covered transportation costs.
“We’re just trying to help out,” he said. “It’s a great way of giving back and supporting Idaho potatoes.”
“We weren’t sure what we got into when we signed on to this project, either,” he added with a smile.
Before the coronavirus hit, Idaho spud farmers were doing well. Idaho farmers planted 315,000 acres of potatoes in 2019, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
According to USDA Market News reports for the Twin Falls and Burley district, 50-pound cartons of restaurant-grade potatoes were fetching sky-high prices, between $22 and $23, on March 16, the AP reported. By the April 23 report, however, carton prices had fallen to between $10 and $12.
And when restaurants were ordered closed, potato processors cut back on contracted acres with farmers, and fresh potato prices have plummeted, even as demand at grocery stores has been strengthened, according to the Associated Press.
Smathers said Idaho Farm Bureau is buying large quantities of potatoes to support farmers while giving the spuds to food banks to help those who have lost their jobs in this outbreak.
Dobson said that last year, the local farm bureau gave out $1,000 to each of the food banks last year, as well.
“It’s just a way we are trying to help the community in the view of all this pandemic,” he said.
