A Manitoba potato farmer is transforming his community, and watching his own faith grow at the same time, all thanks to spuds.

Mark Peters began what's grown to be an annual tradition of giving away potatoes for free four years ago. At the time, Peters had a 30-acre field on his farm near Portage la Prairie that was deemed not saleable for seed. For a farm that's just 100 acres, losing almost one-third of the land was pretty difficult to take.

"That was when I thought, 'Man before we disc this whole field under, like, can we not do something with this? Is there any way to redeem something out of this bad thing that has happened?'"

While the potatoes couldn't be sold as seed, he says that they knew the field would still produce potatoes fit for consumption.

Peters decided to dig a couple of truckloads of potatoes and take them into Portage la Prairie to give away. "We just gave away potatoes and I couldn't believe the people that came, and the gratitude." 

'Something infectious happened'

For Peters, as he watched the people at that first event, he quickly realized that something special was happening.

"It (wasn't) just potatoes, but there was something infectious that had happened on our community."

Peters has continued the annual give away since then, and it's grown larger than he could have imagined. Last week at the 2020 event he gave away 45,000 lbs of potatoes.

"When you see all these people all together and they're helping and there's joy, there's something... it's like a tiny taste of heaven."

Surprised by call to mission

As the give away has grown each year, so have the glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven that Peters gets.

"I never thought how, you know, a little potato farmer north of Portage la Prairie could have such an impact," he says.

Two people haul a way a wagon filled with a large bin and sack of potatoes

This year Peters received lots of help from others. The landlord that Peters rents the field from gave it to him for free, his chemical company provided him with free chemicals for the season, and his workers all donated their time to harvest this year's crop. "It's becoming more of a community thing, now."

"When things happen, the hurdles and hard things come along, know that God can use that for His purpose, too. Don't just sluff it off and think, 'that's a bad thing that happened' and move on. Maybe there's something that God's telling you through that. I think that's, for me, is what's happened in my life and what I've seen."

Peters says he's begun to use that lesson in all areas of his life when bad things happen. And, he says, it's a great question for individuals to ask themselves in a year like 2020 and in the midst of a pandemic.

"What are some things that we can learn from this about how we can help our neighbour and others who are really hurting at this time."