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Thank you for all who helped with potato drop

To the editor:

I want to give a huge thank you to all of those who helped with this year’s Potato Drop on Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Youth Park in Reedsville.

First of all, thank you to the Mifflin County Youth Park Board for allowing us to use the pavilion for this project. It was perfect for our project. Also, to Penn Equipment for use of a fork lift and hand truck so the skids of potatoes could be unloaded safely and efficiently.

Through the Society of St. Andrew we received 23,500 pounds of potatoes that were rejected by commercial market or potato chip factories due to slight imperfections in size, shape, sugar content or surface blemishes. This year’s potatoes came from Maine and our costs were only for transportation. Although the truck arrived later than expected, over 50 volunteers from local United Methodist churches and Mifflin County High School National Honor Society students not only assembled over 1,600 mesh bags, but also sorted and repackaged 50 pound bags of these spuds into 10 pound bags for distribution.

Approximately 7,150 pounds of potatoes were picked up by local food pantries, the Shelter, Meals on Wheels and churches. The remaining were handed out in 10-pound bags to anyone who could use them. What was expected to take up to four hours of sorting only took one and a half hours because of the many hard working volunteers who came on a very cold Saturday morning. Thank you very much to all who helped and to the following churches who contributed financially to support this project.

Yeagertown UMC, Rhodes Memorial UMC, Watts Memorial UMC, Reedsville UMC, Church Hill UMC, First UMC, Wesley Chapel UMC, Granville UMC, Grove Memorial UMC, Walnut Street UMC, Salem UMC and Grace UMC.

This was a project that was truly blessed by God. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” Matthew 18:20. God proved once again that when we work together in God’s name, our efforts aren’t added but multiplied.

The Rev. Rick Bender

Project Coordinator

Lewistown

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