MICKAYLA MILLER | Staff WriterA Lancaster city man who has been handing out potatoes as a Halloween treat for more than 20 years has recently received some national attention for his quirky handout.
Locally, Pat Foy is known as the "Potato Man."
Foy recently talked to the Wall Street Journal for an article it published about kids receiving potatoes for Halloween instead of candy. The article credits him as one of the "earliest to the game."
According to previous coverage from LNP | LancasterOnline, Foy started this tradition around 2004 with a 75-pound bag of Russet baking potatoes from Costco.
Since then, the tradition has grown, and it's common to see an extensive line near Foy's house on the 200 block of Pine Street.
"I'm a prisoner of my own practical joke," Foy says to the Wall Street Journal.
Foy says to LNP|LancasterOnline that he didn't know that giving out potatoes was a viral trend until the Wall Street Journal contacted him. But he doesn't do it for the trend.
He says his favorite part is "the smiles on the kids' faces and the laughter."
Those who receive the potatoes have turned them into French fries, home fries, hash browns and platskis, or Polish latkes, Foy says.
Foy was also featured in an NBC Nightly News segment on Oct. 30 about the trend of potatoes being given as Halloween treats.
"I say to everybody, 'candy or potato?' And they say things like, 'potato all day,'" Foy says to NBC.
The news segment, which can be viewed below starting at 18:30, features Foy and other potato-giving Halloween enthusiasts.
JENNIFER KOPF | Staff Writer
