LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Now that Thanksgiving and Halloween are a sweet memory, one Kentuckian is making sure the old gourds don’t go to waste.
Organizer Julia Renton held a pumpkin toss for the second year in a row.
“I am collecting pumpkins from our community. So everybody buys all their pumpkins before Halloween, then what ends up happening is a lot of the time, these pumpkins just end up in a landfill and I came up with the idea to try to recycle them,” said Renton.
She said when her family got chicken more than a decade ago, she came up with the idea. She did lots of research on how to care for the animals.
In that process, she said she found out that pumpkins had a lot of benefits for them. That’s when the idea for a pumpkin toss was born.
“When I found that out, I was like, I wonder if there’s a way I could help our community. So 10 years ago, I thought of this idea, but I never acted on it because I was like, I don’t know how the community will take to it, but when I finally asked them last year for the first time what they thought about it, they absolutely loved it,” she said.
Last year, she said they received around 300 pumpkins. They were used for more than just the local animals.
“Any of the wildlife that eats them out on the farm that we live on, they naturally can get de-wormed, which just makes them healthier and helps them live a longer and healthier life, which is amazing and we like to see that, but also, living in the city, they’re deprived of a lot of nutrients and stuff and food is more scarce,” she said.
Throughout the day, people came to the Springdale Presbyterian Church to drop off their old pumpkins.
Renton said she loves doing this and hopes others will start their own collection to give to the wildlife.
“Somebody that has a farm who has chickens, pigs, horses, goats, you name it, I would love to see you give it to them as well and let their animals enjoy it and recycle. We always want to recycle,” she said.
Renton said she will be continuing to hold the event for years to come.