Some Montreal charities struggling to meet fundraising goals

MONTREAL — The holiday season is proving to be difficult for some Montreal charity organizations.

The Salvation Army has raised more than $160,000 in its annual kettle drive and the charity has only one week to go to make its $300,000 goal.

Organizers are still hopeful they will meet their province-wide target but admit the sluggish Canadian economy and the lack of snow are dampening donation spirits.

“I think it’s the economic situation and the weather too could be a factor,” Esteban Bongiovanni of the Salvation Army told Global News.

Nationwide, the charity has raised $13 million of its $21 million Christmas Kettle Campaign goal.

At the Sun Youth Organization in Montreal, more than 15,000 food bags are expected to be handed out between now and Christmas Eve. But even that amount of help for the city’s underprivileged may not be enough.

“We are not sure. We will know in a couple of days if we have enough food for the 15,000 we promised… And anything that’s left we have to operate for the first three months of the year,” Tommy Kulczyk, vice president of Sun Youth told Global News.

Charity organizations just hope Montrealers will continue to dig into their pockets or use their time to help out those who are less fortunate; people like Nick Cammarrota, who’s waited in line for a food bag.

“I don’t have so many food. I live alone and I’m struggling,” he told Global News.