For the past 11 years “Forgotten Crops” has collected potatoes and squash that farmers cannot harvest from their fields due to weather or field conditions.
From September 6-October 31, the founder of “Forgotten Crops”, Stu, has been able to collect enough potatoes and squash to supply different food pantries and soup kitchens in the WNY region.
“We’ve had rain after rain and the farmers are not happy, they put their crops in late and they want to get them out and they can’t,” says Stu.
Stu gets help from farms in the GLOW (Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming) region as to when he and a few volunteers are allowed to walk the farmer’s field and collect potatoes and squash left behind by the big machines that weigh close to 20 tons and sometimes sink in the clay filled fields.
“We load up the remainder in boxes and we drive on through and load them up in the truck,” which Stu says is a 1996 Ford F350 he keeps going somehow.
The 13 wheelbarrows were donated and Stu fixed them up as some had a broken leg or a flat tire.
The volunteers only have a two-day window to get in the field to collect what is left behind.
“If you miss the window they chop them all up and they put wheat in,” says Stu.
Stu and his volunteers spend about 2 1/2 hours in the field loading up what they can. Four times during the season volunteers come together and do a squash and potato wash at the Bergen Evangelical Presbyterian Church on South Lake street road, which backs Stu’s mission.
On Saturday afternoon about 20 volunteers showed up for a three-hour potato wash.
Gary Shaw, from Tupelo, Mississippi, volunteered with “Forgotten Crops” for the first time this year. He is in the area for two weeks helping provide child care for his grandkids.
“I think this is awesome, its feeding people and its a ministry,” says Shaw.
Shaw plans to return to the area next summer for two months and will volunteer again. He says he will take back information on the ministry and hopefully start something similar in the Tupelo area.
“Sweet potatoes are the crop down there, they are softer so you have to move quicker.”
Shaw, who volunteers with the Lyons Club, will try to work with farmers and get insurance to set up something similar to “Forgotten Crops”.
“Forgotten Crops” gets college and high school students along with members of the church to volunteer their time to help during the vegetable washes.