Getting Potatoes Out of the Field and onto Neighbors’ Tables with R.D. Offutt Farms

R.D. Offutt Farms (RDO) is a 60-year-old potato growing operation with more than 10 farms across Minnesota and more than 15 across the Midwest. Their potatoes are processed and shipped to a variety of places, from quick-service restaurants like McDonald’s to school lunch programs. And now, that list includes Second Harvest Heartland.

“I was made aware of R.D. Offutt Farms last year when we helped move some of their potatoes to our partners and other food banks across the country,” said Midwest Food Hub Manager Emily Tucker. “I reached out to them this summer to introduce Second Harvest Heartland, and since then we’ve been working together to get their excess potatoes out to folks who need them.”

One of RDO's potato storage facilities.

RDO didn’t have the capacity to wash and pack the potato donations as they typically send potatoes to their clients straight from the field. A longstanding Second Harvest Heartland partner, John Brown of Brown’s Produce, stepped in to help wash, sort, and pack the RDO potatoes so they can be distributed to food shelves and meal programs.

“We reimburse John for the cost of labor, packaging materials, and transportation to get the taters here,” explained Emily. “But even with those costs, they’re still less expensive than any other potatoes we could get thanks to RDO’s donation!”

To make the donations happen, Second Harvest Heartland discussed RDO’s availability and timeline, and connected them with Brown’s Produce, making sure that RDO’s timeline worked with Brown’s own processing schedule. Furthermore, most of the potatoes received through this partnership are then repacked from pallet-sized loads down to 40-pound bags by Second Harvest Heartland volunteers in our Brooklyn Park Volunteer Center.

Volunteers packing potatoes in the Second Harvest Heartland Volunteer Center.

"I'm glad that we found this workaround, so that we can get excess potatoes to the food shelf to be used,” said Jennifer Maleitzke, director of communications and external affairs at R.D. Offutt Company. “Ideally, that's our goal. We want potatoes in the mouths of people who need them."

So far, Second Harvest Heartland has received a little over 250,000 pounds of potatoes from RDO and the Sourcing team is looking forward growing this partnership in the months and years ahead.

“We're a family-owned and -operated company and the family is very dedicated to supporting communities where we operate,” said Jennifer. “We want to be involved and be good community members. It is fantastic that we were able to find an opportunity to work with Second Harvest Heartland.”