The Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank is celebrating after surpassing its Christmas Hamper fundraising goal.
On December 17, 94 community volunteers helped to deliver Christmas and toy hampers to families in need around Fort Sask.
Kassandra Gartner, the executive director of the food bank, says hamper delivery day went as well as it could have gone.
"We provided 280 holiday food hampers to 280 residences in Fort Saskatchewan and 431 toy packages for children," said Gartner. "[This helped] bring Christmas to more than 900 people in Fort Saskatchewan."
That is 16 per cent more toy packages and 15 per cent more hampers than they were able to deliver last year.
The food bank had been fundraising over the last month and a half for these hampers which include normal hamper items along with special holiday foods such as hams and turkeys.
Gartner said that they set a goal of raising $85,000 to help put together all the hampers in time for Christmas. A milestone that they were able to surpass.
"It has been really special to be a part of, having folks bring in donations, large and small," said Gartner. "Lots of different people coming in saying they wanted to support the food bank and the Christmas campaign."
"We are blown away by the generosity of our community and the desire that people have to ensure that nobody gets missed and nobody gets left out at Christmas."
Some of the highlights that helped them get to that fundraising goal included fundraisers from multiple schools in the community, businesses like South Fort Chevrolet donating money, and even the help of the U18 Fort Sask Rangers among many more.
The food bank will now shift their focus to the new year.
"January is always the busiest month out of the year for hamper distribution," said Gartner.
After tireless work, food bank employees will be taking a bit of a break. They will be closed until January 2.