Hamper donations down

The St. Albert Kinettes will be digging deeper into its own pocket this Christmas to make up for the ever-growing shortage in donations it receives each year.

The city service group has been collecting non-perishable food and toys for its annual Christmas hamper program to help struggling families get through the cash crunch of the holiday season.

Today is the last day that donations will be collected and to date the donations are down. Way down, according to Kinette hamper co-chair Destiny Tremblay.

“There are lots of different organizations that are collecting in St. Albert. Every year, it gets a little harder.”

“We have a little bit of a shortage going on for food and toys, which, unfortunately [happens] every year,” she said, offering a brave laugh. “The more that we can get, the better.”

The problem has been compounded by the fact that there are two grocery stores that previously supported the campaign that did not sign on to support the cause again this year. The Kinettes have “definitely seen the impact” of that.

This shortfall means the Kinettes had to place an order for $4,000 of food to help fill the hampers.

“It’s just more that we have to go in and top everything up. At this point, we just need more cash donations than food donations. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough of everything to put in every hamper.”

“We’ll make it work.”

She added that the collection boxes are still out at numerous locations around the city. People are still encouraged to give what they can, but cash donations are preferred at this time.

“That’s how we refill up our bank for next year. We do have to go out and purchase a lot of items because unfortunately we get thousands and thousands of boxes of Kraft dinner but people can’t live off of Kraft dinner.”