In a year underlined by increasing costs of living, the Salvation Army in Fort Frances is feeling the pinch, but is committed to providing those in need in the area with a happy Christmas.
The local organization is in full swing of its annual Christmas Kettle Campaign and its Christmas Hamper program, but Salvation Army Fort Frances auxiliary captain Arthur Heathcote says they have seen firsthand the impacts of rising costs of living.
“Things have been going relatively well, with the exception of for the first time in four years, I’m having to order about 60 extra hamper boxes this year,” he said.
“What has happened is the people that we’ve counted on for Adopt A Family in the past are not showing up this year. It’s within good reason too, people are just trying to keep food on their own shelves first before you can help someone else. That’s really where the drop has happened this year.”
Heathcote noted that the Adopt A Family program has seen a 50 percent drop in participation, meaning far fewer people have signed up to help support a family in need by donating holiday food staples and gifts for children within the family. That shortfall is being made up by the purchase of the extra hampers, as well as pulling from the Salvation Army’s pantry shelves to help fill them out. Heathcote said that no application they’ve received for hampers will be turned away, but it also means that going into the post-holiday months, the Salvation Army could find itself short.
“We have all the applications in and we’re committed to filling those applications,” Heathcote stressed.
“The challenge that we run into is it means the extra food is coming off of pantry shelves which means there’s less for the critical months of January, February, March. It’s a real balancing act at this stage of the game. Everyone will be looked after this Christmas, no doubt, but we’re looking past Christmas to making sure there’s adequate supplies for people who are going to need some food.”
Heathcote noted that so far in the Kettle Campaign, donations have been where they are normally, which means people are continuing to support as they can. He also noted that the bulk of donations to the Kettle Campaign occur during the last two weeks of the effort, which means that come Christmas itself the organization will have a better overview of where it may need to make up the shortfall. The number of people utilizing the Tap functions at the kettles has increased over years past, where Heathcote said donations are up 50 percent as the public starts to catch on. Heathcote said those and other donation drives have been extremely helpful to their cause this year, which the Salvation Army is thankful for.
“[Other donations] have been staying on par,” he said.
“We’re very happy about Stuff A Cruiser. It came in with some extra numbers this year that we’re very grateful for. We’re still tabulating toys at this stage of the game. We don’t know how many more we need to buy right now. We normally do have to prop up that supply due to the fact of age differences. There are usually age gaps that show up at the last minute that we try and fill.”
While donations continue to come in, and Heathcote said there are usually unexpected donations and drives that come in during the season he can’t account for, he acknowledged that many in the district are struggling to make ends meet, meaning more and more people are coming to them for help.
“We’ve seen a lot of working people coming asking for help where in years previous, you know, the number was opposite,” he explained.
“There weren’t so many working people coming in saying, ‘hey, I just can’t make ends meet.’ So that is the difference this year. People are biting the bullet and stepping up and asking for help. And we’re more than happy to be their help.”
Heathcote said the Salvation Army still has to purchase some perishable items that get included with the hampers, such as potatoes and carrots, before they go out for Christmas, and with a generous donation from the Beyak Automotive Group, each hamper will once again receive a turkey to go along with their holiday dinner. However, there is still a need for, and time to make, donations to help support families this Christmas. Heathcote said there are still volunteer opportunities to ring the bells at one of the Salvation Army’s kettles set up around town, and volunteers can contact him at 807-291-0012 or fort.frances@salvationarmy.ca. Outside of volunteering, he urged those who had the means to make a donation to the Kettle Campaign, or directly to the Salvation Army itself.
“The people that have those donor letters sitting on their desk that they’re planning to fill out, I’m encouraging them to pick up a stamp and drop it either in the mailbox or they can drop it off at the Thrift Store all this week, all next week,” Heathcote said.
The Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle Campaign runs until December 23, 2023.
