Ugly Potato Day feeds thousands in Kelowna
Published 1:58 pm Saturday, August 1, 2026
More than 5,000 Kelowna residents filled the parking lot at Evangel Church on Saturday for Ugly Potato Day, walking away with roughly 120,000 pounds of fresh produce that grocery stores would have rejected for cosmetic reasons.
Tyler Heppell, a fifth-generation potato farmer from Surrey and founder of the event, said the morning exceeded his expectations, especially considering only a few dozen people showed up to the inaugural event four years ago in Surrey.
“We’ve had thousands of people come out today and collect pounds of food. This is a day that celebrates the food that gets wasted and shows people that it’s still edible, and it also celebrates that local farmers are stepping up to feed their community when they’re in need,” explained Heppell.
Organizers ultimately had about 140,000 pounds available for free, with the leftover produce headed to local food banks. The haul this year included potatoes, carrots, beets, zucchini, apples, peaches, avocados, raspberries, lemons, peppers and more.
In four years, the initiative has grown to host at least 22 events, with a larger giveaway planned for next weekend in Surrey, where organizers expect to see 30,000 people.
“It’s called Ugly Potato Day because we’re potato farmers, and we see a lot of potatoes that we can’t sell, just because of the cosmetics, but they’re perfectly fine to eat,” said Heppell.
According to Heppell, roughly 45 per cent of food farmers grow goes to waste, often due to strict size and appearance standards rather than overall quality.
Last year, Helen’s Acres reached out and hosted Kelowna’s first event with 30,000 pounds of potatoes supplied by Heppell, with roughly 2,000 people attending.
This year, Heppell travelled to Kelowna to take on a larger role, shipping roughly 100,000 pounds of mixed produce. The other 40,000 pounds were donated by Odd Bunch, an online grocery delivery service.
Ugly Potato Day aims to keep edible but imperfect produce out of landfills and on family tables, with the movement already distributing millions across the province.