For 40 years, Harvest Manitoba has been committed to ensuring no Manitoban goes hungry, and now the non-profit is gearing up for a big celebration by doing what they do best. "That is feeding people and doing it a little bit differently with a barbecue street party at our warehouse," Vince Barletta, the President and CEO of Harvest Manitoba said. "We've got entertainment lined up, the screening of a new short documentary, lots of activities, and tours of the warehouse." Barletta is excited to be able to connect with the community. "For us, it's a chance to reconnect with many volunteers and people who have supported this organization for a very long time and say thank you to this community that has done so much to support our work for decades." Doing the work Manitoba Harvest does would not be possible alone, as Barletta knows. "It takes a province to feed a province. We've had support from every corner of Manitoba, in particular our agriculture community, the food sector, volunteers, literally tens of thousands of people over the years who have come through the doors of Harvest to help us pack hampers and sort potatoes, drive trucks, answer phones, all those things that allow us to serve today." .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } 40 years ago, Barletta says the demand was not nearly as high as it is today. "Over 100,000 Manitobans use the services of Harvest each month. Compared to where we were 40 years ago, it's dramatic the number of people we serve now compared to then." Every single month, Harvest Manitoba collects and distributes over one million pounds of food throughout 400 agencies across the province of Manitoba, including 50 communities outside the City of Winnipeg. "We serve food banks, soup kitchens, school programs, daycares, and we also do so in our facility education programs, employment training programs and urban agriculture," Barletta said. To say thank you to the community, Harvest Manitoba is hosting a community barbecue. It is free to attend, Harvest is asking Manitobans to RSVP here. "Please come on down if it's been a long time since you've had a chance to visit Harvest, we'd love to see you, see what's changed, and reconnect with some people you volunteered with in the past," Barletta said. The community barbecue is on August 21 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 1085 Winnipeg Avenue.