Arabic version: توزيعات اليقطين تغذّي مجتمع ويتصنداي

According to ABC News, retired canegrower Darcy Emmerson delivers about a tonne of pumpkins twice a week to community groups across the Whitsundays. The 80-year-old grows the produce at Kelsey Creek, 14 kilometres south-west of Proserpine, and distributes it in Proserpine, Cannonvale and Airlie Beach.

Known locally as “The Pumpkin Man”, Mr Emmerson takes pumpkins to charities, churches, daycare centres, doctors’ surgeries and businesses. His deliveries include Meals on Wheels and the Proserpine Community Centre, where community support officer Ashley Gunn said people come in specifically for pumpkins and sometimes return with produce from their own gardens.

Mr Emmerson asks for no payment. “It’s not actually a charity run, but it’s a little gift for people,” he said. He said he had enough to live on and felt he had to help others. At Meals on Wheels, he aims to deliver larger pumpkins so volunteers can cut them up and make them go further in community meals.

His work has prompted others to contribute. A local sign-writer made a professional sign for the pumpkin stand under his letterbox, while an anonymous donor supplied a net for the back of his ute. A restaurant has put “Darcy’s Pumpkin Soup” on its menu, and local mother Leah Warren is writing a children’s book inspired by his generosity.

Mr Emmerson grows bugle, butternut and kent pumpkins in soil mounds using “mud” left over from sugarcane processing at the local mill. As the season ends, he expects more pumpkins next year. With help from his 86-year-old mate, friends and family, he plans to continue picking and delivering them; when he cannot make the runs himself, he said his son Craig will take over.