EKY food pantry gives out 40,000 lbs. of seed potatoes, garden seeds in Breathitt County

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JACKSON, Ky. (WYMT) - Recently, there have been numerous events take place across the region that promote sustainability throughout the mountains.

On Tuesday, one Breathitt County organization carried on that mission with their own giveaway.

“We received 40,000 pounds of seed potatoes from SOSA,” said Breathitt County Hunger Alliance Founder and CEO, Patsy Clair. “Its an organization that we have been fortunate enough to partner with for the last three years.”

Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) is just one of several nonprofits the Breathitt County Hunger Alliance has partnered with to help the people of Eastern Kentucky, but this event marked one of the organization’s largest donations to date.

The alliance was also able to distribute thousands of garden seed packets, with a goal of impacting the communities that were destroyed in July’s flood.

“People have lost their gardens due to flooding and stuff, so hopefully this year, we’ll be able to help people get back on their feet with gardening and that type of thing,” said Clair.

This event served people like Suzie Jones of Breathitt County, who is trying to save money to fix her home that was destroyed in the flood.

“I’m grateful they do try to help everybody in the community because we do need the help and they are giving everything to help us,” Jones said.

Clair added that she hopes giveaways like this can also inspire older generations to teach younger ones sustainable habits.

“We need to teach our children what we were taught and that is how to survive, so maybe we can get back to that,” said Clair.

Tuesday’s giveaway took place outside the old Walgreen’s building in Jackson, but the organization also hosts an annual giveaway at their own building on the third Saturday of each month.

Their building is located at 1537 KY-1812 North in Jackson.

Those with the organization said they hope to partner with more groups to host a second giveaway each month.

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