Why 380,400 Avocados Are Being Given Away In Philadelphia
Place yourself in the shoes of an average Philadelphian. You're walking down the street on the way to grab yourself a Philly cheesesteak when you notice a woman carrying a bag of avocados. And by a full bag, we mean a full bag of avocados. Writing it off as just another weird thing you'd see on an average day in Philadelphia, you keep walking — only to walk past a guy carrying two bags overflowing with avocados. The more you look around, the more you realize that almost everyone around you is carrying bags full of avocados. Did you miss out on a memo or something?
In case you are in or around the Philadelphia area and somehow find yourself craving an avocado, you may have been lucky enough to swing by FDR Park and grab yourself a few avocados — a few out of 380,400 to be precise. According to Philly Eater, nonprofit food redistributor Sharing Excess is giving away free avocados from Wednesday, October 19, to Friday, October 21. The reason for this giveaway is that these thousands of avocados were surplus from South America and were actually just going to go to waste, so Sharing Excess decided to give them away to whoever wants them.
According to a Philadelphia Inquirer interview with Sharing Excess founder Evan Ehlers, there's no limit to how many avocados a person can take. But just how nuts can your average Philadelphia go over avocados?
Philadelphians cleared house the first day
Although you may imagine the Philadelphian diet to consist of cheesesteaks and soft pretzels, you'd likely be surprised to learn that it seems Philly has a soft spot for avocados. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sharing Excess managed to get rid of 60 pallets, or 230,000 avocados, on Wednesday alone. Fortunately, there were more than enough avocados — two truckloads worth! — to go around. It seems that many Philadelphians simply couldn't get enough of the avocados — especially ones that were being given out for free.
A tweet from NBC 10 reporter Miguel Martinez-Valle reveals that on October 19, demand for avocados was so great that there was actually back-to-back traffic in the FDR Park area, and people had begun queueing in long lines just to get their hands on them. Sharing Excess' Facebook post on "Avogeddon" implied that there was indeed a mad rush to get those free fruits. "It was not a joke," said Facebook user Stephanie Ariel. "The crowd was more than expected." A recent update by Sharing Excess reports that more help is needed to give out the avocados and that, should anyone be willing to assist, they will be "rewarded handsomely in avocados."
If you visited Avogeddon in Philadelphia and now find yourself with more avocados than you know what to do with, perhaps you could look at the best recipes to make with avocados. Or maybe just make a big bowl of guac and call up the neighbors.