LETHBRIDGE – With only a few more days until Christmas morning, Lethbridge charities are hoping for a last minute donations push ahead of the holidays.
“We are a little bit less than what we brought in last year,” said Interfaith Food Bank executive director Danielle McIntyre. “We’re encouraging people to still give.”
The Interfaith Food Bank has been busy stocking its shelves for the city’s less fortunate all December long. Recently, it started to hand out Christmas food hampers with enough food for the month, as well as a special Christmas meal.
Items for the hampers are purchased in the fall, but Interfaith banks on donations to support them through the winter months.
“We cross our fingers and hope the financial contributions come in during the Christmas season to help us pay those bills,” said McIntyre. “It’s never ever too late to give to the food bank. Financial gifts, non-perishable food items, toys and what not… we will always accept them.”
The Salvation Army has also been busy this holiday season. Toys for tots wraps up Tuesday and is still short of donations in the older age range. The kettle campaign is just short of reaching its final goal of $125,000, it’s currently just below $100,000.
“We’re hoping that this last week will be the big push for people to give generously to our campaign,” said Salvation Army’s Peter Kim.
The Lethbridge Food Bank has been handing out Christmas hampers and hoping to have the stock to last during January and February. Executive director Debbie Woelders said that because of the generous people in Lethbridge, their numbers are right where they hoped to be.
“It’s just so wonderful,” said Woelders. “We couldn’t do it, we could not feed this many families, we’re doing over 700 hampers in December. That’s a lot of families, and 40 per cent of those are children. We couldn’t do it without the support of Lethbridge.”
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