Redmond scouts harvest potatoes to benefit local food banks

Published 4:03 pm Thursday, September 20, 2012

Last weekend, members of Redmond’s Cub Scout Pack 591 and Boy Scout Troop 591 received a firsthand lesson in hard work by participating in a potato harvest to benefit local food banks.

On Saturday, about 15 scouts, their families and friends, as well as members of the Church of the Holy Cross in Redmond, worked together to harvest 5,135 pounds of Yukon gold, red new, russet and fingerling potatoes — about 20,000 servings of mashed potatoes.

HELPING OUT COMMUNITY

The harvesting took place at a farm at 20121 W. Snoqualmie River Rd. N.E. in Duvall and was part of Clean Greens Farm and Market, a nonprofit with the mission to bring fresh vegetables to inner-city and low-income families who may not have access to the produce otherwise.

Jim Eichner, the rector at Holy Cross, is leading the church’s involvement in the program and said the potatoes they harvested have been delivered to a Northwest Harvest hub in Renton, which will distribute the potatoes to various food banks in the area.

The scouts became involved after Martin Sleeman, pack master for the Cub Scouts, learned what Eichner was doing and wanted to lend a hand.

Sleeman thought it was a great opportunity for the scouts to help their community.

“It is one of the major focuses of scouting,” he said.

Sleeman added that it was also an opportunity for the boys to get outside and visit a farm, which many of  hadn’t experienced before this.

“They were pretty excited,” Sleeman said about the scouts’ reactions to getting involved.

A HARD DAY’S WORK

Sleeman’s son, Ian, participated in the great potato harvest and said the potatoes had already been pulled out of the ground and they just had to pick them up and put them in buckets. While this was the case, he said the work was still a lot harder than expected, especially after three hours.

“It is a lot of work,” the 10-year-old said.

He added that the work they did is really important because not only are they helping the farmers with the harvest, they are also bringing fresh vegetables to people who wouldn’t usually get them.

Although Sleeman is in charge of the Cub Scouts, which consists of boys ranging from 7-10 years old, he was also able get the Boy Scouts, which consist of 11-18-year-olds, involved. He said in addition to an opportunity to help the community, the harvesting event also gave the cubs a chance to meet and work with their older scout counterparts.

“I saw them doing a lot of hard work,” he said about all of the scouts.

Like Ian, Jackson and Robert Leavitt could attest to this. The two brothers also helped with the harvest and admitted that it was fun initially, but they became wiped out fairly quickly.

“It was really hard, but it was good for the community,” said 10-year-old Jackson.

He added that their experience made him think more about the food that ends up on his dinner table and the people who worked to get it there.

Younger brother, Robert, 8, said one of the things he learned from the harvest was that there are all different kinds of potatoes.

“I just thought they were all the same,” he said.

AN ONGOING PROJECT

Both Leavitt brothers and Ian said they wouldn’t mind helping with another harvest in the future.

“It’d be fun to do again,” Ian said.

That opportunity may be closer than the boys think as Eichner said they have weekly harvests of about 300-500 pounds of vegetables. These harvests have been on Monday, but they will now be Sunday afternoons from 4-5:30 p.m. through the end of October. For more information, call (425) 885-5822.

For those who are unable to volunteer their time, Eichner said they can help raise money for the project by visiting the Holy Cross pumpkin patch from Oct. 6-13 on the church grounds at 11526 162nd Ave. N.E. in Redmond.