Special Offering for November 19th

This week’s special offering will be for St. James Food Basket. Marie Truelove, Chair reports: We are preparing for another busy December. Now that we have made sure the people we give food to live in our area, our numbers have fallen from the spring peak.  We are now under 300 per week, but may go above that in December. It is a lot more manageable now, but still crowded. We do not feel we have the space to provide all food in a “shopping model” so we are still packaging bags of shelf-stable items, fresh produce, and an extra bag for large families. But more items are out for people’s choice: milk, yogurt and any other dairy; bread, sweets, cereals; peanut butter, eggs, sardines, dried beans/lentils or meat. We still do not have the room to go back to having a miscellaneous table where people can take or drop off baby clothing and other small items.

There have been no extras for people in 2023.  We received no funds this year from Daily Bread, so we have had to cut back on the toiletries and household items we had been able to give out during the pandemic, and have not provided any gift cards so far this year. St. James Food Bank use has grown so much and so quickly that Daily Bread has been struggling to get us enough basic food items.

In December we will continue our tradition of giving out Walmart gift cards as our only extra item. Every child under 18 years of age will receive one. Every household without children will also receive one gift card. We want everyone to get a small gift at this time of year. While such a gift cannot change someone’s life, we hope that it adds a bit of joy.

We need your help to pay for these gift cards. Thank you for your ongoing support! We wish you and your family a healthy and happy holiday season. For more information, please visit St. James Food Basket’s website.

Next week’s special offering will be for Family Outreach Ontario.