P3 Farms hopes to break record of fresh produce donations to Edmonton Food Bank

A potato farm just outside Edmonton expects to donate 135,000 pounds of potatoes to Edmonton's Food Bank after harvest season.

David Benjestorf, a founder of P3 Farms, is hoping to break last year’s record harvest with donations to the Edmonton Food Bank.

On Sunday, Benjestorf and volunteers were busy plucking potatoes during the final harvest weekend of the season.

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“Our record season was 107,660 pounds, which was last year,” said Benjestorf of the farm’s potato bounty. “This year, I’m guessing we’re going to break that record with probably 135,000 pounds in total.”

P3 Farms, formerly known as the Pandemic Planting Project, started in 2020 when the food bank was struggling.

“When COVID-19 hit, we knew that there was going to be a shortage of food, and we knew that our client base was going to spike,and so we started looking at alternative ways to get fresh foods to the food bank” said Benjestorf, who has been on the Edmonton Food Bank board for about 16 years.

Benjestorf owns 23 acres of land outside of the city, and decided to build a farm where the harvest would be donated to the food bank.

“Six years later, we’re almost 550,000 pounds in total donations.”

This year, the farm grew more than 20 crops including peas, beans, beets, carrots, potatoes and honey.

“Fresh foods are always something that the Edmonton Food Bank wants if they can get it,” said Benjestorf. “If they have a choice between potatoes and say, macaroni and cheese, they prefer the potato. It’s a healthier, more nutritious option.”

Farm volunteer Anastasiia Varnaska said she’s happy to give her time after using the food bank herself.

“It’s nice helping, knowing that people need it and will eat either their families because we were also in the same place before,” Varnaska told CTV News Edmonton.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti