b'Turning a Corner and Looking to Tomorrowby Dominic LaJoie, NPC President It is hard to believe that sitting here towork,appealingtoUSDAand12monthsafterthestartofthe MembersofCongressforsupportCOVID-19pandemic,wecanbe anddirectrelief.Andtheycamethankful that the U.S. potato indus- through.tryingeneralandtheNationalPotato Council as an organization is DuringtheNPCAnnualMeeting,in the process of emerging relatively we reported the total amount of fed-healthy. When 2020 NPC President eralreliefdeliveredtothepotatoBrittRaybouldpassedthegavelto industry since the crisis began, andme in February, I reflected on how theoverallnumberswereimpres-differentlylastyearcouldhave sive. turned out and how grateful I wasfor her leadership and the work of InMay,USDAannounced$50the NPC staff in managing our way million in surplus potato purchases,through this crisis. which was largest of all the COVID-NPCrelated specialty crop purchases andLastspringandsummer,theU.S. the largest surplus potato purchasepotato industry was reeling from a in history.crash in demand like nothing weveMessageever seen. NPC and our state part- Potatogrowersweredeliverednersestimatedthatmorethan70 $46.5 million in direct relief underpercent of the potato industry was thefirstCoronavirusFooddirectlyimpactedbythegovern- Assistance Program (CFAP). ment-mandatedshutdownsandfoodservicerestrictions.Thestag-The second CFAP delivered evengeringoversupplyofpotatoeswas morerelief,ataround2.5-timesestimatedat1.5billionpounds, more than the initial program. whichcouldfilltheU.S.CapitolBuilding 14 times over. Finally, there was substantial pota-to participation in USDAs FarmersWith anywhere between $750 mil- to Families Food Box Program.lionand$1.3billioninpotatoesand potato products clogged up in Alltold,andnotcountingPPPthepipeline,NPCandourstate loans,NPCandourstatepartnerspotatoorganizationpartnerswent helped deliver around $250 million8 POTATO GROWER MARCH 2021'