First Air stepped up to help an Ottawa farmer send hundreds of pounds of potatoes to Iqaluit after a fire wiped out one of the city's main stores. Dan Valin with First Air says the potatoes left on a freighter flight this morning and First Air picked up the cost of sending the spuds.
Mike Milsom is an organic farmer who farms NCC land on River Road and delivers produce to restaurants and local residents in the Ottawa area, offering shares through Mike’s Garden Harvest. He has also been delivering fresh produce weekly to Iqaluit as part of his business, harvesting and them immediately washing, packing and delivering as fresh of produce as he can. Just last week, he dug up the last of his produce, hundreds of pounds of Russet potatoes and decided to donate them to the people in Iqaluit, after that city’s largest store, Northmart, went up in flames.
“They've had a setback,” Milsom says, “My own emotional response to the events that happened with the fire,” says Milsom, “is that this is where the potatoes need to go.”
First Air stepped in to offer to ship the 2000 pounds of potatoes up north at no cost.
“We understand the amount of work and effort that went into preparing this shipment,” says Valin, “Although it's not something we can always do, we definitely want to be doing what we can to continue to help the community.”
Valin says the potatoes left on a flight with regular cargo this morning.
