Regina might have beat us in football, but we devoured them in food.
Winnipeg has officially broken Regina's Guinness World Record for the amount of food collected in a 24-hour period. The announcement of victory over our friendly rival was made on Thursday to coincide with National Hunger Awareness Day.
Investors Group president and CEO Murray Taylor and Winnipeg Harvest board president Sherri Walsh celebrate their Guinness World Record yesterday morning for the most food collected in a 24-hour period -- more than 176 tonnes.
"Regina was going to reveal they won the record and the first words that came out of the CEO of the food bank's mouth were, 'We got it. We did it,'" said Bruce Michalski, Winnipeg Harvest special events coordinator. "A year later, I can say, 'We got it. We did it.'"
Winnipeg set the record by collecting more than 176 tons of food during the drive held in October.
Regina lost with only 156 tonnes, but the Regina food bank's CEO Wayne Hellquist got off a bit easier than Winnipeg's Mayor Sam Katz.
Katz had to wear a Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey in Regina when the Blue Bombers lost the Grey Cup.
As of Thursday, Winnipeg Harvest had no plans to make Hellquist wear a Blue Bombers jersey while handing out food, Winnipeg Harvest board president Sherri Walsh joked.
"It's kind of a bittersweet record," Walsh said. "We wish we didn't need food banks, but it's an ongoing challenge that doesn't stop with the world record."
Winnipeg Harvest made it easy to donate with 10 drive-through stations set up around the Canad Inns Stadium parking lot. Donors could just pull up to a station, pop the trunk and watch as volunteers dressed in orange vests collected the food.
More than 500 people volunteered for the 24-hour event. It's the third Guinness World Record the city has snagged in the last six months.
The city skated into the record book in January, winning the title of the longest outdoor ice rink on the planet.
In February, a Winnipegger persuaded hundreds of people of all ages to head down to The Forks to form a the longest human skating chain in the world.
The next challenge is for eight people to take part in a Winnipeg Harvest seven-day hunger challenge. They will live on only $6.50 a day, which has to cover food, phone, Internet and personal hygiene items.
meghan.hurley@freepress.mb.ca
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