Winnipeg Harvest founder Lee Newton dies

The woman who created Winnipeg's largestfood bankhas died.

Lee Newton died this weekend from brain cancer. She was 61.

Newton founded Winnipeg Harvest in 1985 after seeing a story on TV abouta food bank created by agroup of nuns in New York City.

But Newton didnt want to open a place where people came to line upfor handouts. Instead,she decidedto open a distribution centre, where donated foodwould be redistributed to social agencies, according to Winnipeg Harvest's website.

From that start, Winnipeg Harvest now provides food to more than 320 agencies in Manitoba every month.

Harvest executive director David Northcott said Newton was an amazing person with a "significant, stubborn spirit that had a big, big heart attached to it.

"[She] just said, 'this is good, let's make this happen.' And she had that persistency of spiritthrough her whole life."

Northcott saidit's especially sad to lose someone so young.

Avolunteer award will be named in her honour at Winnipeg Harvest, he added.