A bounty of fresh produce brought smiles during a much-anticipated veggie giveaway in Teulon last weekend.
Tribune Photos Submitted
Volunteers and organizers helped distribute thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables during the Teulon and District Senior Resource Council’s free food giveaway held March 14 at the Town of Teulon garage. In partnership with Second Harvest and several southern Manitoba farmers, the event provided 1,000 bags of potatoes, onions and carrots — totalling about 41,000 pounds of produce — to residents to help support food security in the region
On Saturday, March 14, the Teulon and District Senior Resource Council hosted a large-scale free food giveaway in collaboration with Second Harvest in an effort to boost food security in the region.
All were welcome to pick up bags of potatoes, carrots and onions free of charge at the Town of Teulon garage.
Second Harvest is Canada’s largest food rescue organization, working with thousands of businesses across the country to redirect food that might otherwise go to waste. For the Teulon initiative, several southern Manitoba farmers donated the veggies.
Barb Mankewich of the Teulon and District Senior Resource Council said the event was absolutely amazing.
“Unfortunately, we ran out of carrots and onions but had plenty of potatoes to distribute. Our amazing group of volunteers handed out 640 50-pound of bags potatoes, 180 25-pound bags of onions and 180 25-pound bags of carrots, making a grand total of 1,000 bags of farm-fresh vegetables,” she said. “The total weight of free vegetables given away totalled 41,000 pounds.”
She shared gratitude with everyone who made the event such a great success.
“A huge thank you to the volunteers that directed traffic, the muscles that carried veggies to the vehicles, the volunteer collecting donations for Teulon Seniors Resource, our town foreman who unloaded the product from the truck, Glenn Kletke for letting us use his forklift, the Second Harvest Team who helped make this happen and, of course, the farmers who donated such an incredible amount of food, Scotlynn Logistics and their volunteer driver for transporting this wonderful and amazing gift to our community,” she said.
“Last but not least, thank you to all that came and waited in line to take advantage of this special gift.”
The entire event amounted to a feel-good experience for everyone involved.
“It is so hard to express in words the feeling of pride while witnessing our community work together to make The Great Potato Giveaway such a great success. It was rewarding to also see the local businesses benefit from the increased traffic in our quaint little town,” Mankewich said.
“Our volunteers are so looking forward to seeing you all again on Saturday, March 21 when will we be giving cases of french fries away.”
