The Shriners will be kicking off their annual fundraiser on Saturday, May 3 selling Vidalia onions around McIntosh County. Shriner Andy Killingsworth stated that their chapter would be selling the onions at the following places:

• At Checotah Masonic Lodge #86

• At Nelson’s Feed Store in Eufaula

• At Lakeview Grocery in Texanna “We will set up at these places around 10 a.m. and will be selling bags of Vidalia onions until we are sold out,” Killingsworth said. “These are very sweet tasting onions and it’s always been a tradition with the Shriners to sell these onions. So we hope everyone comes out and buys a bag or two to help us with this fundraiser.”

For over 50 years the Shriners have sold Vidalia onions as a way to raise money for their chapters to help provide care for children with burns, spinal cord injuries, cleft palates and more. Over 500 onions come from a farm owned by the Shriners in Vidalia, Georgia.

These true Vidalia Sweet Onions are shipped “Fresh from the Farm” directly to the Shriners by the first week of May. The Vidalia Sweet Onion is as sweet as a Valencia Orange with a natural sugar content of 12.5%. These unique characteristics combine to make it a gourmet delight.

Another sweet fact about Vidalia onions is that a sweet onion can only be called a “Vidalia Sweet Onion” if it was grown in one of twenty specific counties designated by the Vidalia Onion Act of 1986, which was named for the city where it was first discovered. The Vidalia onion was also named Georgia’s official state vegetable in 1990.

So stop by one of the three locations and help support local Shriners in McIntosh County.