{"id":493494881,"date":"2018-09-17T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/headliner\/2018\/09\/17\/digging-up-spuds-for-operation-ezra"},"modified":"2018-09-17T11:28:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T16:28:32","slug":"digging-up-spuds-for-operation-ezra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/headliner\/2018\/09\/17\/digging-up-spuds-for-operation-ezra","title":{"rendered":"Digging up spuds for Operation Ezra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megan Sodomsky is hoping for sunny skies on Sept. 22 — good weather in which to dig up a potato crop.<\/p>\n

Sodomsky is a volunteer with Operation Ezra, a Jewish-led coalition of multi-faith organizations that has sponsored 55 Yazidi refugees to come to Winnipeg since 2015. She said the idea of planting a field of potatoes arose during a discussion of how to provide food support for some of the government-sponsored Yazidi families in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

She said potatoes were a food staple for many of the families.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Supplied\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Supplied photo\nOperation Ezra volunteers are shown hilling potato plants on a farm near Portage la Prairie this summer. The potatoes will soon be harvested and distributed to Yazidi families in Winnipeg who need food assistance.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

“The idea of planting the field was a fairly natural one given that most of our refugee families were farmers in Iraq.”<\/p>\n

Sodomsky said she approached her father Ross Tufford and uncle Roy Tufford, who operate a grain farm southwest of Portage la Prairie, to see if they would be willing to donate a field and help with the project.<\/p>\n

“They were supportive,” she said. About six men with Operation Ezra planted about 200 seed potatoes in the spring, with approximately 25 volunteers helping to hill the plants later in the season. She’s expecting about a dozen men to volunteer to help harvest the potatoes on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

Sodomsky said that this summer’s dry weather doesn’t seem to have hurt the plants’ growth. Each plant is likely to produce about 10 potatoes.<\/p>\n

“The plants are huge,” she said.<\/p>\n

The harvested potatoes will be trucked back to Winnipeg and distributed through Operation Ezra.<\/p>\n

Operation Ezra volunteer co-ordinator Michel Aziza said he hopes to expand this year’s vegetable growing project in 2019.<\/p>\n

“We are actually now looking to lease some farmland somewhere around Winnipeg for a number of Yazidi families to farm next season (between 20 and 40 acres).” Aziza said in an email message.<\/p>\n

He said growing vegetables is a practical way for some of the newcomer families to produce their own food and also help needy families in their community.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in taking part with Operation Ezra in a farming project for 2019 should contact Aziza at operationezra1@gmail.com
<\/a><\/p>

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