Impark exchanges parking for food

Imperial Parking is offering free parking in five of their lots during World Junior Hockey exhibition games Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to anyone who brings a non-perishable food item for Winnipeg Harvest.

Richard Wisnowski at Impark says the offer was a last-minute idea raised at a board meeting on Friday.

"We had a senior operations meeting with our team … and a member of the group said, you know, maybe what we could do to give back to the community would be to offer free parking in lieu of a donation," he says. "And one of the members brought up Winnipeg Harvest and the group unanimously decided that that would be a great way to give back to the community."

Winnipeg Harvest spokesperson Diane Poulin says the help is more then welcome.

"We're very blessed in this community to have such overwhelming support, and it does go to feed 36,000 people every month, half of whom are children," she says. "That need doesn't go away after Christmas is over, so we really value and appreciate our community partners like Impark."

The five parking lots within a block of the MTS Centre, at:

• The northeast corner of Smith and Graham, across from the downtown post office.


• The southeast corner of Donald and St. Mary, across from Cityplace mall.


• The southwest corner of Ellice and Carlton, behind the old Free Press building.


• 256 Smith St., just north of the Holy Trinity Church.


• 356 Ellice, behind the Air Canada building.

Staff will be on hand to collect donations as patrons enter the lot. Both non-perishable food items and cash will be accepted as donations.