Harvest Manitoba is now one step closer to building a food rescue and distribution facility, thanks to some new funding. On Tuesday, the organization announced it is receiving $500,000 from Farm Credit Canada to help lay the groundwork for a food transformation and distribution centre that will take edible food leaking from the supply chain and make sure it gets into the hands of Manitobans. Harvest Manitoba said this funding will help with facility layout improvements, technology upgrades and cold storage expansion. It will also increase the amount of food available to Manitobans, improve the food’s nutritional value and ensure it gets to people more quickly. “It’s going to allow us to process more food and get more food onto the kitchen tables of Manitobans,” said Vince Barletta, president and CEO of Harvest Manitoba. “We’re talking about a 30,000-square-foot expansion of Harvest’s existing facilities and that’s going to enable us to manage and process another eight million pounds a year of food products from the Prairies and here in Manitoba.” Barletta noted the food rescue and distribution facility can only be built once all the money is raised, adding that the organization is still in discussions with donors and government. He said they expect it to be a $20 million project. “I think all of us know and feel in our hearts that when we throw away food in a world where millions go hungry, there’s something wrong with that equation,” he said. “Here we are in Canada throwing away $50 billion worth of food every year.” In the past year, Harvest Manitoba has saved 8.7 million pounds of surplus food and redirected it to food banks and community programs. The organization said this new funding will help scale these efforts even further.
