This holiday season, Montreal food banks and shelters including Moisson Montréal, Salvation Army and Share the Warmth have noticed a considerable decrease in the amount of donations they’ve received and fear they will not be reaching their objectives in time for Christmas.
This time of the year is particularly difficult for the less fortunate. As the weather gets colder, the amount of help needed rises. Many of Montreal’s nonprofit organizations are noticing their partnerships have lessened since last year.
“We’re a little late this year compared to last year,” said Sandra O’Connor, who works as the director of marketing and communications at Moisson Montréal. “Last year at comparable dates, we had about 140-150 businesses participating, and right now only about 90 businesses have confirmed that they will be holding food drives.”
However, this is not the first time Moisson Montréal has experienced such problems. “Every year, we face the same difficulty of reaching our objectives before Christmas. We get answers very late in the season. It creates a stress for us,” said O’Connor.
Nevertheless, Montreal food banks need canned goods and donations now. Most of the time however, donations and food rush in during the days leading up to Christmas day.
“We need to make the baskets before we give to the people in need. We need all the stuff three or four weeks before,” said Dany Michaud of Moisson Montréal. “We need time to prepare the baskets of food to then hand out, they need to be ready for Christmas.”
Organizers at Moisson Montreal are speculating that the weather and the fact that people have not gotten into the Christmas spirit might be to blame for the decrease in participation of food drives within businesses.
Debra Gunn, program co-ordinator at Share the Warmth for over 15 years, works with businesses that help raise money and organize food drives. Gunn has also noticed the decrease in donations they’ve received this year.
“A lot of companies have downsized [the] number of employees and other companies have closed,” said Gunn. “I’ve lost eight companies, four of which have closed down.”
The Salvation Army is facing a different kind of situation. Brian Venables, ordained minister and officer at the Salvation Army in Montreal, claims that although they have been receiving fewer donations, the amounts of each donation have been larger than in previous years.
The organization which also relies on help coming from various businesses, plans on handing out 1,200 hampers in Montreal alone. Each hamper contains enough food to last a week.
“It is important that we keep building better partnerships and working with the corporate sector, because the economy is what it is, people have lost their jobs, or theres the threat of losing their jobs,” said Venables.
The Sun Youth organization intends on helping 18,000 people this year. They believe they will attain their objectives in terms of number of baskets they will be handing out, but they will not be as full as they normally are.
Sid Stevens, the executive vice-president of Sun Youth, believes the NHL Lockout was in part the cause of the decrease in donations collected this year. In previous years, Sun Youth received a major part of their charitable donations from sports bars and nightclubs during NHL games.
All these nonprofit organizations urge Montrealers to reach out and help. After all, no one should go hungry on Christmas.
