Ugly Potato Day is a great event in Surrey where local farms give away produce for free to fight food waste and make sure fewer people go to bed hungry.
Surrey’s Ugly Potato Day in 2024
Ugly Potato Day began in 2022 at Heppell’s Farm which is a massive farm in Surrey that has produced large quantities of food (primarily potatoes) for over a century. The event now happens at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
Ugly Potato Day aims to lessen food waste. Supermarkets don’t buy produce that’s deemed “ugly”, whether due to blemishes or imperfect shapes. So plenty of farms end up throwing away food that is perfectly edible and nutritious.
Over its first two years, Heppell’s Farm hosted 14 Ugly Potato Days at different times of the year. Shoppers showed up to the farm and could load up their bags with free food, including potatoes, carrots and squash.
The event soon got so big that it outgrew the farm! Now Ugly Potato Day takes place at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, with a dozen farms contributing food to the event. It’s estimated that over 10,000 people attend the event when it happens, and there can be as much as 150,000 pounds of produce!
Where and When
Ugly Potato Day happens at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, which is a little under an hour drive from downtown Vancouver. The final event at Heppell’s Farm was on June 8th, 2024. The first one at the bigger venue was on August 3rd. The next is on October 19th.
October 19th, 2024, has been designated as National Ugly Produce Day by the event’s organizers and its partners, which includes the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Farms in other parts of Canada and the United States host similar events on the same day as part of a grassroots movement.
The October 19th Ugly Potato Day runs from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. It’s entirely free to attend.
What to Expect
Ugly Potato Day is sort of like a Farmers Market, except everything is free! Large containers of food are opened up and anyone and everyone is welcome to show up and fill their bags with fresh, local (and yes, ugly) produce. There are potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, apples, bread, squash, parsnips and more.
There’s usually a DJ playing music and a couple of food trucks on site as well. The event can get crowded, but there’s more than enough food for everyone! Ugly Potato Day also benefits local food banks. It’s a great local initiative!
Ten Servings Co.
Ten Servings Co. was created by Tyler Heppell, who also spearheads Ugly Potato Day. The organization fights against food waste with the goal to decrease the number of people in BC who go to bed hungry.
Ten Servings has donated over 10,000 servings of food to local food banks since it was founded, in addition to its work running Ugly Potato Day and helping create similar events in other places in North America.
Other Information
For more information about Ugly Potato Day, visit the Ten Servings Co. website.
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