Farmer working to fly potatoes to Iqaluit soup kitchen

When Ottawa organic farmer Michael Milsomsaw the images of flames engulfingIqaluit's largestgrocery store, he thought the Arcticcommunity would need help to replace the lost food before a bitter winter set in.

Milsom, who operates Mike's Garden Harvest on River Road, calleda community food centreand asked if they could used a shipment of recently harvested potatoes.

"I said if you want them, I can give them to you. The only hurdle is the cost of flying them up," Milsom said.

TheQajuqturvikFood Centre saidyes right away.

"Even without this crisis, the community is always struggling to get fresh produce," said executive chef MichaelLockley, who is already thinking up menu items.

Farmer flying potatoes to Iqaluit after major grocery store fire

6 years ago

Duration 0:57

Farmer Mike Milsom of Garden Harvest is sending roughly 900 kilograms of field potatoes to Iqaluit's Qajuqturvik Food Centre.

Now Milsom and volunteers arewashing, sorting and bagging roughly 900 kilograms of field potatoes with the intention of sending them north as soon as possible.

Milsomestimated the potatoes are worth$2,000 and the cost of shipping them north on First Air will be $6,000, but on Tuesday the airline said they would waive the cost.

"We understand the amount of work and effort that went into preparing this shipment,"said the airline's spokesperson DanValinin an email.

"Although it's not something we can always do, we definitely want to be doing what we can to help the community of Iqaluit."

Before the airline stepped up, Milsom's longtime customer DavidDavison launchedaGoFundMecampaign to help defray the costs of delivering the potatoes.

He saidhe's inspired by Milsom's actions.

"He's out there working the fields, he has noble aspirations to make life better for people in the north." said Davison.

"He's willing to put in the sweat to make those ideas happen."