Vestal, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The Potato Posse — a group of four Union-Endicott juniors — will attempt to boil and mash their way to the world record for the largest serving of mashed potatoes.
The record will be attempted Saturday at the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center at Binghamton University.
The current world record stands at 2,297 pounds of mashed potatoes by two Frenchmen in 2012.
The Potato Posse consists of Evan Armstrong, Tyler Hubeny, Colin Stockdale and Jason Lin. The students are aiming to prepare 2,500 pounds of potatoes.
The group gathered $5,000 through a mix of fundraising and donations. Selling t-shirts for the event was one method used to raise money.
“We’re going to wash the potatoes in this big sink,” Stockdale said. “Then we are going to put them in steam cookers and once they’re there, we are going to put in all the ingredients — the potatoes, the butter, the milk — in this big mixer.”
After all the potatoes are weighed, they will be frozen in sheet pans and donated to the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse of the Southern Tier, or CHOW, to be distributed.
This run at history is part of an assignment for their English class, called “The 20 Percent Project.”
Hubeny noted, “The goal of the 20 Percent Project is to devote 20 percent of your time to do whatever you want — whatever you’re passionate about.”
“Each of us had a passion in certain areas,” Lin said. “We combined all of them together, putting our strengths together.”
Although the massive undertaking has the potential to leave a lasting impression, achieving a world record, cooking this many potatoes could leave another lasting side effect.
“I think it will be difficult to eat mashed potatoes for a few months,” Hubeny said.
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