The Western Canadian Ribfest Tour handed off one final gift to the community after wrapping up their first Ribfest in Lloydminster.
The organization donated $14,000 worth of beef ribs, chicken, coleslaw and other foods to The Olive Tree following their weekend event.
Olive Tree Assistant Executive Director Jana Thompson thanks both organizations and says they’ll give out what they can this week for their community meals and freeze the rest for later meals.
“We’re not used to getting smoked ribs and to be able to serve and distribute that is a pretty amazing thing.”
Community meals re-opened in July at half capacity and serves free meals every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5 p.m. Thompson says anyone who is still cautious about eating in a community space, but is in need of a meal can still contact the Olive Tree to work on different options.
She says the food bank has received an incredible amount of support from residents, businesses and organizations since the start of the pandemic.
“The community has been such a great support to us and continues to be a great support with food or monetary donations and they’ve stood by us this whole time.”
Ribfest was organized by Border City Connects and the Western Canadian Ribfest Tour. Aaron Buckingham, Business Development Manager for Border City Connects, says the donation capped off an already successful event.
“For us, it was wins all around. Border City Connects had a great event. The Lloydminster Exhibition got to host an event. The city had an event they could come to and, at the end of the day, the Olive Tree received a $14,000 donation from these folks as a thank you.”
Andrew Reinhardt with the Western Canada Ribfest Tour says they were able to fill the Border City Connects handivan with food for the Olive Tree.
“It’s important for us to give back to the community and we said that at the start in order for these events to be successful we need to support the community. It was a great success in Lloydminster. The community supported Border City Connects and us amazingly and we can’t wait to come back next year.”
Both Border City Connects and the Western Canadian Ribfest Tour hope to make it a yearly event in Lloydminster for many years to come and plans for another event in 2021 already underway.
Photo credit: Shutterbug75, pixabay.com
