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Niverville Helping Hands is getting ready to hand out their Christmas Hampers.
They have seen a huge influx of people applying for hampers.
Niverville Helping Hands sends out hampers every month, but during Christmas time, the requests double.
Alexandra Rezansoff has been volunteering with Niverville Helping Hands for over two years now.
She says they received 74 hamper requests.
"It’s the most we've ever received. Last year we thought was pretty busy, and that was at 66.”
She says she’s not surprised by the increased need, as inflation has affected countless people.
"When you're already living on such a small budget and you're seeing such a huge increase in grocery prices, gas prices,” she says. “I believe that's why more families are needing some help. They're just having a really hard time.”
Rezansoff thanks the residents of Niverville for responding to those in need in the town.
“When we need help, people are always there,” she says. “If we need food donated items, people fill up our bin and do food drives. When we need Christmas hampers sponsored, people are online filling out their application.”
Every year they ask their community to help and every year they have the hampers sponsored entirely.
They have small, medium, and large hampers they hand out depending on the size of the family.
They put items like cereal, juice, and canned fruit and vegetables in every hamper.
“We also include a milk and egg voucher that they can redeem at our local grocery store. Just a little something to carry them through,” she says. “We know it's not going to provide for the full two weeks, but it's just to give them a little extra assistance.”
When they have a new family, they also add a few additional items for a nice breakfast, like coffee, pancake mix, syrup, peanut butter, jam, and bread.
They also ask people donating to include a gift of around $30 if there are kids in the home.
“We keep the family anonymous, but we will let them know the age and gender of the child so that they have a good idea of what they can buy them for a gift.”
They encourage donators to include a gift card for the adults as well.
“Because everybody should have a Christmas gift.”
They have Niverville's firefighter department help them send out all the hampers to the families.
“Our firefighter team in town here, they're very warm, loving people.”
Niverville Community Fellowship Church allows them to use the space in the basement for storage.
They have a pantry set up there with two freezers and a fridge, and then shelving for all the food and an additional storage room too.
“We're really, really fortunate to have their support.”
They will be packing the Christmas hampers on the 19th and handing them out on the 20th.
Their hampers are currently completely sponsored, but if you want to make a financial donation, they use those funds to purchase food for the hampers.
You can use e-transfer, email them, or message them on social media. You can find Niverville Helping Hands on Facebook and Instagram.
If you want to coordinate a time to come make a donation, they take credit card and debit as well.
They also have a bin at Niverville Big Way, where you can put non-perishable food items. They empty the bin out on a monthly basis.
with files from Adi Loewen