For around 200 families in the Cochrane area, it will be a holiday to celebrate.
Thanks to the Cochrane Activettes Share Your Christmas hamper program, the families received all the food items for a turkey dinner, toys, and clothing, and a number of other essential items on Dec. 19.
The program runs through the Cochrane Food Bank every December to ensure families in need can enjoy the holidays.
“Our program shares the spirit of Christmas in Cochrane and promotes goodwill with our community,” state’s the program’s website.
This year the Activettes set a goal to raise $100,000 in support of the program, and with the help of the surrounding community they are “well over that goal,” says Ann Beatty, chair of the Cochrane Food Bank.
This year the group saw an increase in the number of hampers being needed, which they attribute “mainly to the economy being down and job loss.”
Normally they provide “around 160 hampers” but this year it was “closer to 200.”
The Activettes have also seen a rise in the number of people needing weekly food hampers from the food bank; last year they delivered “15 to 18 a week” and this year they’ve handed out “20 to 22 a week”.
Overall, Share Your Christmas was a huge success with volunteers spending their Saturday distributing the donations.
The Activettes would like to extend “a great big thank you to the community” for its help with the food bank and the Share Your Christmas program.
