SPOKANE, Wash. — The leaves are starting to change colors, the weather is cooling down and it is starting to feel like fall. Even before fall started, a Moses Lake farmer and his family grew 8,000 pumpkins to donate to local students and non-profits in Spokane.
The Great Pumpkinfest patch arrived outside Adams Elementary School in Spokane on Friday to bring lots of pumpkins and a fun morning to kids so they don't have to travel far to get to the farm.
Adams Elementary School is one of many schools and non-profits benefiting from the generosity of the Moses Lake farm. Joshua Loera, the founder and organizer, started the Great Pumpkinfest during the pandemic to raise money for the food bank.
In the first year, they donated $34,000 to feed local students.
"I can't imagine, you know, my kids going through food insecurity or, you know, going through things that a lot of kids do," Loera said.
From there, they expanded and kept growing to create new partners and help more non-profits. Loera said they have raised more than $80,000 in the past couple of years, all of which has gone back to the community.
Generation Alive is one of the nonprofits supported by The Great Pumpkinfest. They work with youth in Spokane to become leaders with compassion.
"Teaching young people to give back to the community, to serve and discover the joy of helping others," said JJ Vancil, CEO of Generation Alive.
Over the last several months, Loera and his family have grown 8,000 pumpkins on a two-acre lot in Moses Lake.
"Planting them and then cultivating them and keeping them spread out to make sure they have room to grow, weeding, fertilizing," Loera said.
They are each hand-cut and loaded up one by one and brought to Spokane, with 100% of the proceeds being given away.
Loera's generosity and hard work come from his father.
"He's been involved in agriculture his whole life, and they do a little bit of corn, you know, that we sold over the years to get back and help my sisters pay for college and basketball and things like that," Loera said.
What started as a seed, then a pumpkin, will continue to make a difference beyond the season.
"We use that money to then invest in young people to give back even more. So it's this multiplication effect that takes place," Vancil said.
If you want to support The Great Pumpkinfest, there are several pop-up pumpkin patches happening throughout October.
Pop-up pumpkin patches will take place at Brick West Brewing and the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. There will be line dancing, face painting and even a petting zoo.
At the end of October, they will be at Summit Church on the South Hill area. For more information about The Great Pumpkinfest, visit their website here.
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