Happy St. Paddy's Day! Here's your Potato

hat’s more Irish than leprechauns, top hats and green beer?

Potatoes, of course.

Credit: Photo courtesy High Desert Food & Farm Alliance

This St. Patrick’s Day, the High Desert Food & Farm Alliance and Casad Family Farms are getting in the Irish spirit and donating potatoes to NeighborImpact, which provides food to people in need in Central Oregon. According to a release from HDFFA, Casad Family Farms—an organic family farm in Madras—grows thousands of pounds of potatoes each year for use at the Deschutes Brewery restaurants.

Some of those spuds aren’t the right size for the restaurants’ french fries, however—but they’re still good to eat. Instead of leaving those spuds in the field or offering them to livestock, this year the partners are donating them to the food pantry.

“It’s a great program where everybody wins, said Meiko Lunetta, program coordinator at HGFFA. “The farmer has a place for their excess food to go, NeighborImpact gets that food to families who need it and HDFFA involves community members that want to lend a helping hand and support Central Oregonians.”