CJCS Radio and the Kiwanis Club of Stratford are hoping to raise at least $60,000 through their annual Christmas Basket Fund initiative this year to help provide Christmas dinners to 1,150 local families in need.
With more local families in need of some help over the holidays this year than ever before, organizers of the annual CJCS Kiwanis Christmas Basket Fund are hoping area residents will step up and help make sure everyone can enjoy a full, festive meal on Christmas.
In its 46th year, the Christmas Basket Fund will continue raising money to purchase gift certificates for a list of families in need compiled by Stratford House of Blessing and the local Salvation Army.
While, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers and their volunteers would actually use the money raised to purchase a turkey and the traditional fixings for a Christmas dinner and pack it all in a basket for each family on the list, over the past few years they switched to buying grocery gift certificates both as a health-and-safety measure for the volunteers who usually assemble the baskets at the Local Community Food Center and to give the recipient families the ability to choose what they want to eat for dinner on Christmas .
This year, organizers decided to continue purchasing gift certificates — $50 for a family of two and $75 for larger families — after receiving a list of roughly 1,150 families in need, which is by far the largest number of families they’ve ever raised money for .
“At one point, going back a few years, we used to do about 650-700 families,” Christmas Basket Fund chair and Kiwanis member Dave Evans said. ” … For working families with the price food, the price of groceries, the price of gas, everything going up so high, people are having an awfully tough time making ends meet. This is indicative of what’s going on at the local food banks. I’ve never seen the numbers this high.”
In a recent interview with the Beacon Herald, House of Blessing executive director Theresa McMurray said the local food bank has provided food to more than 10,600 people over the past 11 months, equating to 5,860 households and an increase in demand by roughly 30 per cent when compared to the same period last year.
With so many families in need this holiday season, Evans said storing the food and getting enough volunteers together to pack baskets at the Local Community Food Centre, and then finding enough drivers to deliver those baskets would have been a Herculean feat, so organizers instead decided to continue purchasing gift certificates.
But even so, Evans said the Christmas Basket Fund will need to bring in at least $60,000 to ensure a Christmas dinner for each of those 1,150 families. As of Thursday, he said the Christmas Basket Fund was a little more than halfway to that goal.
To contribute to this year’s CJCS Kiwanis Christmas Basket Fund, cash or check donations can be dropped off at CJCS Radio at 376 Romeo Street South in Stratford or donations can be made online through the CJCS Kiwanis Christmas Basket gofundme page.
CJCS and 2day FM is also hosting its annual Christmas Basket Fund Radiothon Dec. 9 from 6 am to 6 pm During that time, listeners are encouraged to call 519-271-2450 to make their donations by credit card.