More than 45,000 pounds of fresh potatoes to be given away at four Grays Harbor locations

McCleary, Elma, Hoquiam and Ocean Shores locations announced

By Dan Hammock • June 17, 2020 3:30 pm
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Volunteers Delores Hampton, left, and Tavita Bucio, both of Sequim, pick up bags of potatoes and onions for placement into a waiting vehicle during a giveaway at the Clallam County Fairgrounds in Port Angeles in May. The organizer of that giveaway, Connie Beauvais, has announced four locations for a similar event, all potatoes, in Grays Harbor County starting Friday.
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Volunteers Delores Hampton, left, and Tavita Bucio, both of Sequim, pick up bags of potatoes and onions for placement into a waiting vehicle during a giveaway at the Clallam County Fairgrounds in Port Angeles in May. The organizer of that giveaway, Connie Beauvais, has announced four locations for a similar event, all potatoes, in Grays Harbor County starting Friday.

More than 45,000 pounds of fresh potatoes were delivered to Aberdeen this week and will be given away free to families Friday, Saturday and Sunday at four locations across Grays Harbor County.

Connie Beauvais, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and Republican candidate for the state Senate in the 24th District, is organizing the local effort. She has organized similar events in Port Angeles and Forks.

Beauvais said there are 19 palletss, each holding 2,400 pounds of potatoes. They will be given out to families drive-through style by volunteers — those picking up potatoes will not have to leave their cars, and volunteers will be wearing masks for a safe transfer.

Each family can pick up two 10-pound bags at the following locations and times:

Friday, 9 a.m. to noon at McCleary City Hall, 100 S. 3rd St.

Friday, 3-5 p.m. at Elma Fairgrounds main parking lot, 32 Elma McCleary Rd.

Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. at the Olympic Stadium parking lot, 101 28th St., Hoquiam

Sunday, 10 a.m. to noon, Ocean Shores Convention Center parking lot, 120 W. Chance a La Mer NW

Beauvais said about 4,800 pounds of bagged potatoes will be available at each of the McCleary, Elma and Ocean Shores locations, and “we will do nine pallets at Olympic Stadium, since we expect people from both Aberdeen and Hoquiam.” That’s 21,600 pounds of potatoes available for pickup at the stadium Saturday.

The potatoes come from Moses Lake producer Desert Ridge. Wilson Logistics trucking company, headquartered in Pacific, provided the shipping to get the potatoes over the mountains into Grays Harbor County, said Beauvais.

Volunteers needed

The success of a giveaway of this size depends on volunteers, said Beauvais. Volunteers are urged to show up at each location a half-hour before the giveaways are scheduled to begin. Each is asked to bring his or her own face mask.

Beauvais said a local Boy Scouts group will be volunteering at Saturday’s giveaways. A similar event in May at the Clallam County Fairgrounds in Port Angeles drew 70 volunteers, ranging from Boy Scouts to motorcycle club members. That event provided more than 29,000 pounds of potatoes to the more than 1,700 cars that came through during the three-hour event. Later that same day, six volunteers from service clubs and the local police force in Forks gave away more than 5,000 pounds of potatoes.

Beauvais choked up when describing one of many interactions she’d had with people expressing gratitude over the giveaway.

“In Port Angeles there was a woman coming through the line with a stroller and two toddlers,” remembered Beauvais. “She said ‘you don’t know what this means to my family;’ right now it brings tears to my eyes.”

The roots, so to speak, of the potato giveaway came from an initiative by the state Potato Commission, local producers and Freightliner Northwest. With so many of the normal buyers of fresh potato products like restaurants and other food service establishments shut down during the pandemic, producers had potatoes stacking up in processing facilities that were destined for frozen products like french fries and tots, an estimated 1 billion pounds worth.

Growers set a goal of providing 1 million pounds of fresh potatoes to families across the state. On June 2, Freightliner Northwest and the Potato Commission announced that milestone had been reached.