Nearly 50 Christmas hampers filled with food and gifts for families in need will be delivered this week across the RM of Piney.
John Prevost, with the Piney Regional Chamber of Commerce as well as a volunteer for the past 3 years says, there are 47 hampers in total. “21 of those are going to families with several children and 26 of those are going to either individuals or couples.”
Prevost says this year, the number of hampers is down a bit. “Over the past three years, it had continued to rise, especially since the beginning of COVID. In 2021 we gave 56 hampers and we had almost double the number of children. But we had help. There was one group of volunteers who would buy and wrap a gift for every child that was 16 years or under, which was a huge blessing. So, by comparison, last year we had 56 hampers, this year 47, so the number has dropped a little bit.”
As to why the number of hamper requests is down this year in the RM of Piney, Prevost says, “there are a few individuals who have passed away since last year. There are also some families who didn’t see the need for one, so I can see that in some cases things have improved for some families, so that's great to see.”
Prevost is honoured to be living in a generous community. “The hampers that we give out here are really nice. They are generous hampers. The people always come through. And yes, it's just a privilege to belong to a community that does this kind of giving, and in the end, it's local people helping local people. It's just awesome to see and be a part of that.”
He says each hamper is specially designed for the specific family, couples, or individuals. “So a smaller hamper would be designed for the couple or individual and then sometimes for larger families we might have to customize it a little bit and make them bigger. “
“We have quite a shopping list too, but they mostly start with some basic things, you know, families would get a turkey. Individuals would get a ham and then everything from, you know, milk, margarine, cheese, coffee, tea, pasta, canned fruit, canned soup, eggs, bread, a box of oranges, cookies, and chocolates."
And the list goes on. "Peanut butter, jam, some rice, some crackers, some oatmeal, some stove top stuffing, some cranberry sauce, granola bars, and fruit snacks for the family,” Prevost says those are just some of the things that get put into a Christmas Hamper for their residents.
He says the entire community puts in effort even the school children who participated in a “Peak of the Market” fundraiser and then they donate a vegetable pack to each family that gets a hamper.
Prevost believes it’s been a difficult year for everyone. “Everyone is noticing the difference in prices. Whether it's the price of food or the price of gas, for some individuals I'm sure that it's even hard just because we're in a remote area, and that's a far to drive, even to pick up their box of groceries.”
He notes the Sprague and Piney food banks work together. "Still, I’m sure that, you know, some of the struggles are there that we don't see as well, and so I would say, that it is probably tough, but again I think that the Community really pulls together to help and I guess I can't say enough about that. Whether it be the churches, the Chamber of Commerce, the businesses, whoever it might be including the school, they all pull together and help in the community, so that's awesome.”
Prevost says they will finish shopping on Monday, then on Tuesday the volunteers will start packing the boxes, and “then Wednesday the 21st they'll be coming to pick up all their hampers in South Junction at the Pine Grove Seniors Centre between 2pm and 6pm.”
“The people will come and get their groceries. We’ll wish them a Merry Christmas and then we’ll meet the next person.”
Prevost says, “We are in a very generous community. Every year they just really pull together and to start naming names would be would a challenge, but I do know that we just live we live in a great area and everyone has been really awesome and pulling together.”
“I think it's really great to see that there is this kind of help that we belong to communities that do this. You see the relief in certain families who come in, knowing that because with each hamper that, as I said earlier, there's a gift for every child who's under who's 16 and under, so you can see the relief in some of the faces of some of the parents when they pick these hampers up. It is just so encouraging that we get to be the instruments of the community. That we get to pass forward these blessings. It's just an honor to be part of that and it's great to see that the needs can be met in this way.”
Prevost says for next Christmas there will be a transition in who is organizing everything. Though it may still be the same volunteers, it will officially be organized by the Sprague Area Food Bank rather than the Piney Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“That's simply for logistics, and the fact that they would be able to give out some charitable receipts for some of the donations that come in because up until this time, everyone who made a donation, did so without receiving any sort of a charitable. So that's kind of how we got involved. My wife and I are both involved in the Chamber of Commerce and we still will be involved when it comes to helping with the local food bank next year when it will be organized through the food bank in Sprague.”