Lions Club holding annual spud sale this Saturday

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This article was published 02/10/2024 (397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This Saturday, the Wheat City Lions Club is selling 50-pound bags of russet potatoes that were grown specifically for the McCain Foods processing plant, but donated to the service club instead, says Mark Keller of Shilo Farms.

“I’ve probably been doing this close to 20 years,” Keller told the Sun, speaking from his work truck about 24 kilometres east of Brandon. “I like to help people, especially the Lions Club. It helps them make money.

“When we first started,” Keller added, “I remember they said to make it about 200 bags, which is 20,000 pounds, and each year as the sale got popular, they asked for a little more.

“So, now I’m up to 50,000 pounds.”

The spud sale is scheduled for Saturday with a 9 a.m. start time. Volunteers with the Lions Club will be selling the 50-pound bags for $15 each in an empty parking lot on 18th Street on Brandon’s North Hill, directly across from the Kelleher Ford car dealership.

For the last two days, the potatoes have been bagged and placed in a semi-trailer by inmates at Brandon Correctional Centre, said Brian McVicar, who is with the Wheat City Lions Club and is past superintendent of the jail.

“The Lions used to bag the potatoes,” McVicar said, “but it’s a lot of hard work on our members, and we’ve had less and less able-bodied Lions to be able to do it.

“And many, many, years ago, when I was running the jail, we had the Lions pile the potatoes inside our recreation yard, and that worked out really well for the Lions.

“But over the years with a variety of security issues, the jail was signalling to us they couldn’t do this much longer. So, I asked if we could bring the potatoes inside their secure area, and that is working very well,” said McVicar.

If the Lions can sell 500 15-pound bags of potatoes this weekend, they could raise $7,500, “and all that money raised stays in our community,” said McVicar.

One of the ways the money is invested in Westman is during the Manitoba Summer Fair, with one day set aside just for those with disabilities to let them enjoy the food and the fair rides at their own pace. The Lions Club pays for the midway and a light lunch.

While McVicar can’t say exactly how many years they’ve been hosting the annual potato sale, he said it’s “at least 30.”

Lloyd McCabe, a longtime Wheat City Lion, said he agreed, adding that each year, the sale is as popular as ever.

“I have a couple of people who always phone me to see when the sale is happening, and when we’re selling, you get people buying two or three bags at a time, picking up a bag for family members,” he said.

With today’s high grocery prices, said Bev, Lloyd’s wife, “$15 a bag is a great deal.”

“It’s a staple food and with the economy, everybody’s looking for a decent price, and that’s probably why even before we start selling, there’s a lineup of cars going up the hill,” she said.

Keller said the quality of the potato could also be the reason why the sale is so popular. He said he likes the russet potato because it gives “that perfect French fry and a baked potato that is nice and fluffy.”

His and his brother’s potato operation is 4,000 acres, with about a week left in the harvest.

The Lions’ potato sale was delayed a week, but it wasn’t because of the rain, Keller said — it was because of the heat.

“Potatoes like cool weather and lots of water. They don’t like the heat and we’ve been too hot,” he said. “And some days we couldn’t go all day because of the heat.

“So, the russet potato is a prairie dry potato, and it is easy to store, so when people buy them, they can keep them in their cool basement for quite a while — three or four months.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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