Winnipegs old Blue Boxes — no longer needed under the city’s new recycling program — will be used to help deliver supplies to the city’s less fortunate over the winter holidays, officials have announced.
The City of Winnipeg recently partnered with Winnipeg Harvest in an effort to find a way for citizens to recycle unwanted blue boxes after the city-wide changeover from manual garbage and recycling collection to automated carts.
City officials estimate there are 500,000 blue boxes across Winnipeg and the average home has two.
The old Blue Boxes will be used by a city food bank to deliver emergency hampers, store food and help people grow vegetables.
A recent report by Food Banks Canada found Manitoba has the highest per capita use of food banks as more people who can't afford to buy food are turning to them for help. More than 63,000 Manitobans used a food bank or soup kitchen in March of 2011, a 14 per cent increase over the previous year.