The organizers of the BBQ Canada Challenge had hoped to see four million Canadians eat one million pounds of Canadian beef on Labour Day. While preliminary results show those numbers may have been ambitious, event co-ordinator Joe Acker said Canadians still showed up in droves.
“Any consumption in the order we achieved is considered a resounding success,” he said.
The official numbers haven’t yet been announced, but estimates show approximately 1.2 million people ate their way through 380,000 lb. of beef nationwide. More than 300 functions registered in the challenge.
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Organized by the Kinsmen and Kinettes of Canada, the goal of the event was twofold: to demonstrate to world markets that Canadian consumers are confident in the safety of their beef; and to set a Guinness world record for the world’s largest co-ordinated multi-site barbecue.
While it’s impossible to tell if the world heard the safe-beef message, the message for the people at Guinness is more obvious.
The previous record for a national barbecue was 44,185 participants at a single gathering in Australia. The Edmonton numbers alone topped that.
A little more than 42,000 gathered at the Northlands Sportex in Edmonton to eat nearly 20,000 lb. of free Canadian beef, and 6,000 students crowded an area at the University of Alberta for free burgers.
Acker, a member of the Fort Edmonton Kinsmen, attributed the success at Northlands to the 417 volunteers who worked there.
“Without their logistical support, we couldn’t have pulled it off. They did an absolutely phenomenal job.”
Other communities in Alberta rose to the Kinsmen challenge, too.
Twelve thousand people showed up at the Spruce Grove/Stony Plain affair, and 8,000 came out in St. Albert, while 2,000 people converged on Leduc.
Just less than 400 volunteers handed out 11,000 free beef burgers in Lloydminster.
An event in Calgary, however, could accommodate only 8,000 due to a lack of manpower.
In Chesley, Ont., the largest barbecue outside Alberta, 12,172 burgers were handed out from a makeshift drive-through location in the parking lot of a farm implement dealer. The response was so positive organizers ran out of burgers with hundreds of people still waiting.
Cargill Foods donated much of the beef given away at the Kinsmen barbecues. Sobeys helped distribute the 100,000 lb. of beef across Canada.
Son’s Bakery of Calgary donated 48,000 buns to hold the 20,000 lb. of beef given away at Northlands on Labour Day.
Wonderbread donated the buns for the Chesley event.
Acker said 32,500 lb. of beef were returned from the Labour Day event. That food will be distributed through the Red Cross to firefighting crews in British Columbia.
