GREAT FALLS — Over the past week, one Great Falls community member decided to use potatoes to plant positivity within the community.
Kenton Miller discovered potato farmers had potatoes that weren’t being used, due to export market shutdowns, and reached out to see when he could pick them up.
“About the beginning of the week we saw on Facebook that farmers down in Billings area were just giving away, dumping potatoes in the fields. So I started checking into it, made some phone calls...and found some farmers that needed to get rid of the potatoes,” Miller said.
After driving out to Foth Farms, a potato farm in Toston, he filled up a trailer with thousands of pounds of potatoes and dropped them off at food banks in several regions, including Missoula, Lincoln, Ronan, Seeley Lake and Great Falls.
Then, on Saturday, he picked up another load and distributed them straight from his residence, offering unlimited potatoes free of charge, and only accepting donations to cover the cost of gas required to drive to the farms.
“I don’t keep track at all. They come to get ‘em and I say, ‘take potatoes, as many as you want’. If they have a dollar they give it or five, or some people give a twenty, but it’s not required. It’s just a free will thing,” Miller said.
Miller said these potatoes have allowed him to plant positivity in the community.
“I know a lot of people can get depressed during this time, and you can look at it in a negative way or a positive way and this is like one thing that we can do, a positive thing, to enhance the community, to brighten people's day,” Miller said.
Miller may make another potato run in the following week or two. He said if he does, he will let the public know when and where they can pick up their potatoes in the Online Yard Sale page on Facebook.
