Winklerites lined up down the street last Thursday for Central Station’s annual Frozen French Fry Giveaway.
The community centre’s Pay It Forward May initiative saw them give away over 2,000 bags of fries.
It was two per vehicle—one to keep and one for recipients to give away in the spirit of the theme of the month, which encourages random acts of kindness.
“We’ve experienced so much kindness that we wanted to pay that back to the community,” said social impact director Krista Rempel. “And in doing so, give people an opportunity to also experience the blessing of paying forward fries.”
It was a great afternoon of connection, she said.
“This is an amazing experience to be able to see this many people, and people that we don’t necessarily always see. And to be able to hand them a bag of fries—who doesn’t love fries? So we’re getting to experience little moments of joy throughout the day. It’s one of our favourite events.”
The giveaway is truly a partnership, observed executive director Anita Wiebe.
“It’s happening here at Central Station, but Simplot and Second Harvest and Winkler Meats were all a part of it,” she said. “And also the Winkler Food Cupboard and The Pantry.
“It’s just organization after organization being able to pay it forward, whatever their part of it is. It took the entire team to get it to this point.”
Tracy Peters from Winkler Meats, which provided freezer space for storage and a giant truck to get the fries to Central Station, said they were happy to help.
“We often donate a bunch of our samples and products [to local food banks] … we absolutely love the community involvement that we have here,” she said. “We want to be more and more involved in the community, and this is a beautiful way to do that.”
