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That’s Some Spud!

   Written by on May 19, 2016 at 11:11 am

Potato Truck Tour Rolls Through Farmville

By Crystal Vandegrift, Staff Writer

FARMVILLE – It’s not every day that you see a huge potato being transported down the road. If you happened to be in the Farmville area earlier this week you may have seen the Big Idaho Potato Truck Tour traveling through on its way to a weekend event in Maryland.

Truck-header-1The Big Idaho Potato Truck is on its fifth cross-country journey. It began in 2012 as a one-year campaign to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Idaho Potato Commission and became quickly apparent with its success that it would be more than a one-year tour.

A team carrying the six-ton large potato replica travels the country promoting the certified heart-healthy Idaho Potato and its mission to help small charities in towns and cities with its A Big Helping program.

The Big Idaho Potato Truck Tour has always had a charitable component to it according to the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC). When the truck was still just an idea, the leadership at (IPC) wanted to make sure the truck made an impact on the people who lived in the markets it visited. In the last four years, the Truck has had two fantastic national charity partners who helped promote the truck on both national and local levels and among their membership.

This year, the tour’s mission is “A Big Helping.” During its four-month tour, the truck will identify charities in many of the markets it visits and offers “A Big Helping” based on the organization’s specific needs. The IPC will work with the selected charity to create an event to help raise awareness, funds, food or all three for the non-profit.

One of the first questions someone asks when they see the large potato is, “Is it real?” Though it looks life-like, it is not real. However, if it was, here is some tater trivia about this large spud:

• would take over 10,000 years to grow.

• weighs six tons (12,130 pounds), equalling 32,346 medium-sized Idaho® potatoes

• is 1,102 times heavier than the largest potato ever grown, which weighed 11 pounds.

• would take 2 years and 9 months to bake.

• would make 30,325 servings of mashed potatoes. Pass the gravy!

• would easily make over 1,500,000 average-sized French fries.

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