A Chippewa Valley non-profit hosts Peach Fest to keep other non-profits peachy keen

ALTOONA, Wis. (WEAU) -One Chippewa Valley family is working to make sure nonprofits in their community are peachy keen by selling peaches.

“Everyone loves peaches, you can’t get good ones around here,” La Peche Community Foundation President, Adam Oster, said.

“One of our favorite things is to bring up peaches and enjoy all of the wonderful peach treats and why not spread that love and, you know, give somebody a little bit of a sweet treat while doing something good in the community,” La Peche Community Treasurer, Gretchen Oster, said.

The fundraiser is called Peach Fest, an event created by the Osters after they realized that people love peaches and love their community even more.

“So, we go down, we grab a bunch of peaches from South Carolina, we bring them up, and we sell them and we kinda have some fun around that as well,” Adam Oster said. “Here at the Nostalgic Bean, we do a bunch of cool treats. Then we are going to play games, and activities, live music, and the nonprofits are going to be onsite.”

However, creating community support with peaches is not new to the Osters. They started their peach mission during the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“We were getting a little bit cagey,” Gretchen Oster said. “My husband’s from South Carolina and wanted to take the kids down for a trip. We brought peaches back in the past and it just happened to be peach season, so we decided to bring a whole bunch back and see what good we could do in the community. That first year we benefited the folks that were displaced by the riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul and it kinda grew from there.”

Since then their peach mission has become an annual tradition. What started as a side project became the La Peche Community Foundation. An official nonprofit they launched this year to continue bringing peaches and selling them to support people in need.

“When are you doing more peaches…you know, we kept getting asked that,” Adam Oster said. “We still get asked that. That right there alone meant we should probably keep doing it.”

Adam will fly out to South Carolina on Tuesday and then make a 20-hour drive back to Wisconsin with 450 cases of peaches loaded into the back of a U-Haul truck on Thursday.

When Adam arrives some of the peaches will be made into baked goods, while the rest will be sold.

Peach Fest will be taking place on Saturday, June 24 at the Altoona Public Library from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Adam said the peaches will cost $55 for a case, which includes around 50 peaches and $30 for a peck which is around 25 peaches. They will also be selling individual peaches for $1.50. Adam Oster said people can also head over to the Nostalgic Bean, which the Osters own, to purchase baked goods made with peaches.

Adam Oster said the non-profits being supported by this year’s Peach Fest include The Community Table, Altoona Public Library, Chippewa Valley Street Ministry, Beacon House, Bolton Refuge House, and The Sojourner House.

To donate to the La Peche Community Foundation click here.

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