wfn.org | Bishops Help Distribute Potatoes

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (440
notes).

Note 438 by UMNS on Nov. 6, 1997 at 16:24 Eastern (2389 characters).

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally			    626(10-71B){438}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470	  Nov. 6, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: Photo available upon request.

Bishops help unload 41,000 pounds
of potatoes for free distribution

	LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) –- United Methodist bishops, in the midst of
their churchwide initiative on children and the poor, got some firsthand
experience here Nov. 4 as they helped distribute more than 41,000 pounds of
potatoes to needy people in western North Carolina.
	The bishops took time out of their semi-annual meeting to help unload a
tractor-trailer truck of potatoes donated by the H. Smith Packing Company in
Maine for free distribution through the Potato Project, a national program of
the Society of St. Andrew.
	The potatoes were picked up by representatives of shelters, soup kitchens,
food pantries, missions and social service agencies. Among them was the United
Methodist church on the nearby Cherokee Reservation.
	The potatoes were rejected for market use due to size, shape, or cosmetic
imperfections.  The nutritious food  would have gone to waste otherwise,
rotting in fields or landfills.
	Every year millions of pounds of produce go to waste because of market
conditions while more than 32 million Americans, including 12 million
children, do not have enough to eat.  The Society of St. Andrew, a national
non-profit hunger relief organization, seeks to salvage the produce to feed
those who are chronically hungry.
	The Society was established by United Methodists in Big Island, Va., and is
an approved Advance Project of the United Methodist Church (Advance No.
801600-0).  The director is the Rev. Kenneth Horn.
	Nationally, the Society of St. Andrew salvages more than 25 million pounds of
produce annually, providing 75 million servings of nourishing food to hungry
Americans.
	Recently, the Society was recognized by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman and Vice-President Al Gore with the first annual "Hero of Food
Recovery and Gleaning Award" for its nationwide grassroots food salvage and
hunger relief programs.  
The award acknowledged the society’s role in establishing gleaning and fresh
food salvage through its Gleaning Network and Potato Project programs as
viable, in expensive ways to feed hungry people while addressing one of hunger
s major causes: food waste.
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