Chris Rossi/The Gazette Pat McNeilly of Gaithersburg helps unload 50 pound bags of potatos at Christ Church Parish Kensington. The church donated 40,000 pounds of potatos to area food banks.

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This story was updated Dec. 19 at 4:15 p.m. An explanation follows the story.

With 50,000 pounds of potatoes piled in the church parking lot, volunteers got down to work.

At Christ Church Parish, an Episcopal community in Kensington, they unloaded the potatoes from an 18-wheeler and separated about half of the 1,000, 50-pound bags into smaller 10-pound bags, all in just over three hours Saturday morning.

The group, which originally thought it was working with 40,000 pounds of potoatoes expected to take about two hours to empty the truck, the Rev. Gina Gerbasi, assistant rector at the church, said but they got it done in just one hour and 17 minutes.

“We just started an assembly line and passed them down,” Patsy Montgomery, Gerbasi’s niece who came from Cockeysville, to help said. “She did not pressure me to come, it just felt like a good thing to do.”

The potatoes came to the church from the Society of St. Andrew, a national organization that salvages fresh produce for soup kitchens and food banks, free of charge. Christ Church Parish did have to pay $2,500 for the gas for the delivery truck, Christiane Robbins, of Brookeville, one of the project organizers, said.

The church will pay for that with money collected through donations and with money from a Leavans Foundation grant, Gerbasi said. “People can still donate by getting in touch with me at the church.”

Robbins said she contacted several local food banks and ended up with a list of 11 groups that would share the spuds.

“Manna [Food Center, Gaithersburg] is by far our biggest recipient, “ she said, “They are getting 400, 50-pound bags broken down into 10- to 15-pound bags.”

At the end of the day Manna actually received 10,000 extra pounds in smaller bags.

“We realized we had more [potatoes] than we expected when the Manna truck had been stacked to the ceiling and there was still a big mountain of potatoes left,” Gerbasi wrote in an email Monday afternoon. “Then I pulled the invoice the truck driver handed us that morning and I saw clearly that he had delivered 1,000 50-pound bags.”

The National Capital Area Food Bank in Washington is second largest, receiving 257, 50-pound bags and the smallest is So Others Might Eat in Washington, which is getting two, 50-pound bags, Robbins said.

Leah Messina, 13, and her friend, Clara Kapiamba, 13, both of Silver Spring, helped by repackaging 50 pound bags of potatoes into 10 pound bags.

“I think it was cool how everyone came together for a good cause,” Clara said.

Gus Gill, 16, and Alex Tatem, 16, both of Kensington and members of the Christ Church Parish youth group, also rebagged potatoes.

“Overall I was really impressed by how many people from the whole community came out. Without [them] we would still be here [working].”Alex said.

In all, Gerbasi estimated there were about 200 people who volunteered to help with what she called “The Great Potato Drop.”

“I think it was a good idea., its really wasteful that they were throwing away all those potatoes,” Ogden Brown, 12, of Kensington and one of the volunteers, said.

pmcewan@gazette.net

This story was updated to note the pounds of potatoes processed -- 50,000 pounds -- was more than expected at the group’s final count.