Manitoba charities are hoping for help on Giving Tuesday this holiday season.
Giving Tuesday is an opportunity for people to give back to the community before the holidays and many charities could definitely use the help.
“Whether that’s your time as a volunteer, whether that’s your funds through a monetary donation, or in the case of Harvest, your food, which we always need any time of year,” said Vince Barletta, Harvest Manitoba president.
The group typically hands out about 11,000 food hampers to families in need per month but now that need has increased to 15,000 and over 90,000 people are visiting Harvest Manitoba each month, with almost 50 per cent being children, according to Barletta.
“They run the spectrum of individuals that are struggling already with mental health, struggling with physical health, with disability, with a whole host of other challenges.”
People can help Harvest this year by making food donations or by volunteering their time. Harvest Manitoba is also accepting cash donations to help run its trucks.
The group operates under a ratio of $1 cash versus $10 of food and Barletta is hoping people will donate what they can this year to help keep everything moving.
“We are able to leverage those funds to do retail food reclamation. We are able to work directly with producer groups and are able to do our food drives all across the community.”
Harvest Manitoba is not the only organization in need of help as Siloam Mission is also hoping for some assistance, especially with the weather getting colder.
This group works round the clock to offer help and support to those who are experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg. Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, CEO of Siloam Mission, said the organization is seeing a big jump in shelter attendance.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in that need,” Blaikie Whitecloud said. “It is people who are housed and had been making it. Inflation has just been making a difference for them, and so maybe last year, they were in a position to give their winter coat away, and this year they are like, ‘Oh, I don’t have one.'”
The organization offers many resources to help people who are struggling. Blaikie Whitecloud said Siloam Mission offers meals, clothing, programming, medical care and other necessities. “Really, you can’t survive Winnipeg winter without them.”
Siloam Mission has many success stories and Blaikie Whitecloud came onto 680 CJOB to share the story of Trisha who had fled an abusive relationship.
“She was given the support to find new housing and eventually regain custody of her kids and reunify and go back to school and is now working and housed and her children aren’t going to have that experience of homelessness.”
By offering someone support today, people can change a generational impact, Blaikie Whitecloud said.
People can help out by volunteering, donating, and being kinder to those in need.
Additionally, the HSC foundation is raising money to help patients who are spending time in the intermediate intensive care unit.
This unit is for those who are more medically stable and don’t require ICU-level care but are still on a ventilator and need help weening off it, Shannon Smith, HSC physiotherapist told Global News.
“I provide rehab to those patients which often involves early mobility,” she said. The foundation has requested for some new equipment to be updated in the unit to help patient recovery.
The new equipment will offer a lot of positive changes for both the patients and the staff at HSC.
“It’s supported mobility so it helps to decrease the risk of falls and if there is a fall it will help to keep that patient safer and the staff safer.”
People can make donations Tuesday and their money will actually be going further as other organizations are matching up to certain totals to help bump up the donations.
All the information regarding the donation bumps can be found on the HSC website.
Lastly, the Canadian Cancer Society is also giving people the opportunity to double their donation impact.
“Your donations up to midnight tonight will be matched up to $50,000, thanks to an anonymous donor,” said Barbara Acampado-Kay of the Canadian Cancer Society on Tuesday.
Donations will go toward funding for life-saving research as well as providing transportation for patient appointments and many other services.