A local farmer is looking to give back to the community of Portage la Prairie and area.

Mark Peters, the owner of Spruce Drive Farms, explains how you can get free potatoes.

"Starting 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 10, the Thanksgiving weekend. We're going to set up a couple of tandem trucks full of potatoes, and we have a conveyer belt there. We invite anybody and everybody to come to help themselves."

They will be set up at the corner of 18 Street and Saskatchewan Avenue and plan to wrap up by 2 p.m.. Peters encourages you to bring your own bags and boxes for collecting the potatoes.

Peters says because of the pandemic, you'll need to be mindful of others when you arrive.

"Try and spread yourself out. A lot of times, we will have a lot of people at the beginning, and especially with social distancing, it could be a bit of a problem. We'll do our best to accommodate everyone, and it'll be a lot of fun."

The tradition of giving back potatoes to the community has been running for a few years now. Some of the potatoes are perfectly edible, but can't be used for seed. So, they get picked up and distributed.

Peters says they usually bring an ample amount of potatoes.

"Each truck will have 25,000 lbs (of potatoes) in it, and we can usually give away all of it, so about 50,000 lbs a year. We have a friend at Principal Supplies at the east end of Portage, and he is also delivering bulk bags (for potatoes) that will go to northern communities."

He adds it's great to see people of all different kinds come out and participate.