Pumpkins for pigs: Keeping gourds out of landfills is ‘passion’ for Cary woman

Last year, Cary resident Kellie Evensen put out a request on a local Facebook community page for any leftover Halloween pumpkins that her friend’s pigs could eat. At the end of the fall season, she collected almost 1,000, and she’s looking to top that number this year.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It was absurd.”

This is the third year of Evensen’s #pumpkinsforpigs movement and she’s gotten some help this year to reach her goal. Cary-based First Response Plumbing owner Joe O’Malley offered the use of one or two of his trucks after he heard Evensen uses her personal car to transport the pumpkins. He attributes his giving ways to his dad who always taught him to help people because you never know what challenges they are facing.

O’Malley said he’s known to be “the one that stops,” and will always help strangers jump a car or change a tire.

“I like to help out the community,” he said. “That’s just who I am. That’s how I was raised.”

All of Evensen’s donations will go to a local friend who privately rescues pigs. She is looking to take various vegetables, squash, gourds and any discarded ends and leftovers from Thanksgiving dinners. Donations from last year are still giving as some of those vegetables have regrown at the pigs’ home.

“They’re replanting and generating another food source for them,” Evensen said.

Pumpkins that are tossed in the trash produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas that damages the environment, according to the University of Illinois’s College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences. Environmental experts recommend people compost their pumpkins or donate them for animals to eat.

Evensen plans to have people donate pumpkins by dropping them off at the side of her home and may rent a truck and leave it for people to place donations.

“This is my passion,” she said.

People can reach out to her on her website, pawsitivelypureed.company.site, where she runs her small business of freeze-dried and fresh pureed dog treats. She also uses spare pumpkins to create her all-natural treats. The community can help Evensen by collecting pumpkins among themselves to lessen the number of cars dropping off at her home.

“If a neighbor could collect their neighbor’s and their neighbor’s, and if they can do less drop-offs of one pumpkin, it would really help the traffic on my street,” she said.

Pigs aren’t the only animals that eat pumpkins, Hooved Animal Humane Society operations and development manager Traci Bennett said. Horses and goats also will eat gourds. The Hooved Animal Humane Society, based in Woodstock, will always take pumpkin and vegetable donations, Executive Director Cynthia Glensgard said, “as long as they are free of any kind of paint or markers or anything that would be toxic to animals.”

Pumpkins for Pigs, a nationwide nonprofit, connects people wanting to dispose of their unwanted pumpkins to nearby animal farms and sanctuaries. Hooved Animal Humane Society is on its list.