Foodies of the Year 2021: J’Val Shuster

Her catering business may have been reeling from the pandemic, but when J€™Val Shuster heard that the Calgary Food Bank was in receipt of an unwieldy donation of 1,000 pounds of potatoes (destined for French fries that never were) she sprang into action. The Potato Project, as it came to be known, saw her company transform the raw material into healthy meals that could be frozen for the underprivileged. Handily, that initial monster shipment started a trend€”by the end of December, Shuster and her company had turned over 20,000 pounds of potatoes into almost 16,000 packaged servings of potato soup, smashed potatoes and potatoes O€™Brien for the community. You know what they say: when life gives you a tonne of potatoes…