Giving Christmas by the box
The woman couldn’t remember a Christmas dinner that hadn’t come from a donated hamper.
“She was 52,” recalls Val Wiks, community ministries co-ordinator at the Salvation Army’s Regina office.
With the best of intentions, Wiks gave the woman one of the grocery store gift cards that are often donated to the organization at this time of year.
“I thought, this will be a really nice change for her. She could go and pick out the food that she wanted for Christmas,” she says, adding that the woman was raising her grandchildren.
Two days later, she came back with the still unused grocery card. “I walked into the grocery store,” the woman told Wiks. “And I was so overwhelmed ... In my whole life, every Christmas has come in a box from the Salvation Army.”
Wiks took her shopping, and the woman thanked her profusely afterwards. But then she told Wiks, “Next year if I need help, please just give it to me in a box.”
It’s one of the stories Wiks, working her 10th Christmas at the Salvation Army, tells from the front lines of holiday hamper giving.
If you thought planning for one Christmas meal was exhausting, try multiplying that by thousands.
Both the Regina Food Bank and the Salvation Army — the two biggies in the hamper department — hire additional seasonal staff. The planning starts months in advance, if only to avoid what Food Bank CEO Steve Compton jokingly refers to as “the great turkey shortage” a few years ago. “The big Santa sleigh” — filled with the food for the hampers — arrives about five days before the boxes start going out the door.
Between those two key players, about 3,000 hampers were distributed in and around Regina this season. Add to that schools, church and community organizations which also put together hampers, and the number swells.
“We had hoped that this year there might be a little less need, but it’s turned out that we’re pretty consistent with previous years,” says Compton at the Food Bank, which alone gave 1,800 hampers.
The faces of some recipients are familiar. Others, explains Wiks, are working poor who need extra help at this time of year. She’s proudly watched the progress of one family. The mom recently graduated from a course, and plans to soon start a new job. “Her big thing for next Christmas is she wants to adopt a million families. I said, well maybe not a million; let’s start out with one.”
How about helping 35 families or more annually?
Over at Campbell Collegiate last week, the library was taken over by dozens of students sporting Santa hats as they wrapped gifts to the Christmas tunes of Michael Buble.
In the midst of the organized chaos was history teacher Todd Miller. In his 10 years at Campbell — and before that at Martin and Usher Collegiates — he has helped students give generously to the Salvation Army’s AdoptA-Family program.
“It’s important ... that we do the very best job that we can to provide these families with the relief that they need, to make their Christmas worthy, give them hope that there are people that care still. And that’s what it’s really about. It’s about humanity,” he says.
They were among those adopting some 300 families through the Salvation Army program that pairs donors and recipients. Over the years, Wiks has had donors make special requests for an adopted family — from size (which she can accommodate) to racial background (which she can’t.)
The Campbell students help, however, whoever they can. This year, students Inaya Haque and Elisa Wong made a video to spread the word. And the money rolled in from a variety of fundraisers. One of the more unique was a “league of assassins” game. Miller has even been known to sell his desk and chair for a class in the quest to raise the roughly $250 to $350 needed per hamper.
A grocery store looks after amassing the food hampers, while the students shop for the gifts, using a list that has the family members’ age, gender and wants/needs.
“I had to think like an eight-year-old girl,” says student Zunaira Toor, explaining that she wanted to find the right gift, even if she will never meet the recipient. “You basically feel like Santa.”
Jaewon Hur, in Grade 12, came to Canada from Korea eight years ago. He remembers other newcomers who got a helping hand at Christmas. “That sticks with me. That is personal for me,” he adds.
The students say some of the more surprising items on those wish lists were the basics, like diapers, pillows, a pair of pants.
“When a family can’t provide that — that (gift) can be life-changing,” says Mac Brock, also in Grade 12.