Sweet Potato Drop

Since 2016, each year around Valentines Day FPC Volunteers gather in Wilson Hall to sort, bag, load and clean up after approximately 6000 pounds or so of sweet potatoes that are brought to the church.  This is the 2NDSAT event that started them all, so we celebrate it with donuts and coffee!  

A participant from that very first Second Saturday shared ...“was more than a success, it was an amazing experience…kids and adults of every age throwing sacks of potatoes ...it was a total joy!  We could have done 10,000 pounds in a heartbeat.”    

Mission Partner:  Society of St. Andrew "SOSA"

“Since 1983, the Society of St. Andrew has salvaged fresh, nutritious produce from American farms – produce that otherwise would be left to rot, and delivered it to agencies across the nation that serve the poor.”

Potato & Produce Project

Through SOSA, we salvage potatoes (and other produce) that are rejected by commercial markets or potato chip factories due to slight imperfections in size, shape, sugar content, or surface blemishes.  Usually, these rejected loads end up at local landfills. Through the Potato and Produce Project, the Society of St. Andrew is able to redirect thousands of-pounds of fresh, nutritious produce to food banks, soup kitchens, food pantries, low-income housing areas, local churches, and other hunger agencies for distribution to the poor.  Because this produce is donated, the Society of St. Andrew pays only for the transportation and packaging of the food—an amazingly low 9 cents per pound! SOSA can provide food to the nation’s hungry for about 3 cents per serving!