VIDEO: 20,000 Pounds of Sweet Potatoes Dropped in Starkville

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)-  Farmers say that 20,000 pounds of sweet potatoes is enough for 600,000 meals. Today, in Starkville on MSU’s campus volunteers from all over North Mississippi participated in the annual Sweet Potato Drop.  It’s part of family volunteer day, a day of service that usually happens the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  But, with so many students going home for the holidays, Mississippi State’s Maroon Volunteer Center along with Starkville’s St. Andrews Society decided to get an early start. Hundreds of volunteers bagged the 20,000 pound pile of sweet potatoes.

The bags will be delivered to food pantries all across North Mississippi and as far south as Jackson.  The sweet potatoes were donated by four Vardamen farmers. Vardamen is the sweet potato capital of the world.