The last few days I’ve been pretty MIA on the platform. I’m home today and hoping to do some posting catchup. I thought first, I’d talk about what has been holding my attention.

One of the Legion committees I look after is the Community Services Committee. It is a committee specific to my branch, it was formed about 22 years ago. At formation, the Christmas hamper program became part of its mandate.

Food items for hampers purchased locally

About the Program

The Christmas hamper program provides hampers of food and gifts for low income families in the community. It was started about fourty years ago by a WW2 Nursing sister. She has since passed away and the program was taken over by another WW2 veteran who recently passed away. I took over the program about ten years ago.

What has developed over the years is a coordination between all local service clubs, social groups, churches, schools and businesses. They hold food drives and raise funds to donate to the program. The Legion organizes and carries it out.

Rather than having several local groups doing hampers and often duplicating efforts, all local groups work toward a common goal. The recipients vary. The may be on disability pensions, welfare, low income seniors, two parent or single parent families or low income individuals.

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The Process To Bring It All Together

November

The program actually starts in November. During the month of November I setup times where I am available each week to meet with recipients for them to signup. Another volunteer joins me on one of the days each week, which really helps during busy times.

We look after people living in our township. Other groups cover the other townships in the county and we actively work to avoid overlapping and duplication. If someone from another area attempts to signup with us, we direct them to the program for their area.

Boxes being setup. Each hamper consists of between two and four boxes

Financial Need

According to Statistics Canada, about 12% of the county lives below the poverty line. Our programs across the county are managing to reach about half of those in need. The rest could be being missed for a variety of reasons that would include: family helping them out, too proud to ask for help or unaware the help is available.

The hard reality is, some of those receiving the help could be working and supporting them self, but wont, for whatever reason. We accept that as a fact of life of the program and withhold judgement. We make contact for a brief period of time and attempting to judge does no good. Those individuals make up a small number of those we do help.

At signup, the recipients need to provide me with their ID, proof of address and proof of income. Eligibility is based on income. Recipients must be at or below the poverty line on their income. I have an income chart that is updated every year using government guidelines.

This year, a family of 4 would need to earn below $3,809 monthly and an individual below $2,050 (CDN) to be eligible for the program. Based on the income I saw the proof of during the program, the vast majority of those who applied would be over the moon to receive 60% of those incomes.

The grocery order starts to arrive

Exploring Other Needs

During signup my partner and I engage the recipient in a seemingly casual conversation of a ‘get to know you’ nature. Once we’ve seen the income, their eligibility isn’t in question. What we’re looking for in that convo is any exceptional circumstances which might be going on in their lives.

We don’t make any promises or comments but we do make note of any circumstances which might be helpful knowledge later on. Usually at some point in the program, someone will donate something which needs to go to a deserving recipient and knowing those details helps in making an effective selection.

A few years ago I discovered that one of our seniors was the mother-in-law of one of Canada’s recently fallen soldiers. During our chat she told me that her daughter and family were coming for Christmas and they were going to just try to be there for each other. I mentioned this to a few people and just before the hampers went out, homemade goodies and small gifts arrived at the branch with notes on for them to be given to the family. We also made sure enough food was in the hamper for their Christmas dinner. Normally we don’t accommodate a recipient entertaining at Christmas.

Last year we found out about a family living in a trailer on a piece of property without hydro (power). They were running extensions from a nearby barn. After getting some people to check out the reports I talked to a nearby community group and they went into shopping mode. In addition to the food hamper they received good quality warm clothing and blankets and heavy duty extensions to make their power supply as safe as possible.

Seeing the joy and appreciation shown by families like that, in addition to those who express their thanks, more than makes up for the few who believe they are entitled and have the right to make demands. I’ll tell you about one of those who surfaced this year later on.

Food from the Food warehouse

Gifts for the Children

When we have parents of children signup we then complete what is called a “Wish List” for each child. The form gathers information on the child: a made up name, age, gender, clothing sizes and notes on what they need, been asking for or their interests.

Some parents arrive prepared, with lists for each child. Others can answer the questions well enough we can fill the form in. At other times, I’m stunned at how little parents know about what their children are interested in.

The wish lists are taken to a mall in the area where cards showing the name, age and gender are placed on a Christmas tree. Shoppers then select a card, receive the wishlist and go shopping for the child. The program is called The Giving Tree.

Each card is number coded to identify the agency who submitted the child, the family and which child in the family. For example if the family was #10 to sign up for The Giving Tree with us and the child was the second child we completed the list for, the number would be 6010B. This number is different than our internal number for the hamper so the two need to be matched up later.

Potatoes, onions and carrots awaiting distribution

December

Having spent November gathering together a picture of what the program is going to look like for this year, December is when we start to prepare the various elements that make it come together.

There are always stragglers who either through; not bothering to meet the deadline, change in circumstances which necessitates getting help or just learning the help is available, call me to get added.

That means our numbers will change on an ongoing basis even while we’re working to get the food needs identified and arranged. The last hampers were added the day they were filled this year. It means making sure extra is built into our planning to accommodate the last minute additions.

Apples donated by the local fruit market

Food donation boxes go up in various places around the community. Events take place where people are asked to bring non-perishable food items. Churches hold white gift Sundays and ask their parishioners to bring food. Local factories do collections of food and raffles to raise cash.

Yes, there are cash donations brought in from across the community. The cash is used to purchase items not covered through the food donations. After the program is finished, the cash is used to help support the local food bank during the rest of the year.

Bringing it All Together

As the food donations begin to arrive one of our faithful volunteers, John, arranges for a team of volunteers to sort the food into groups like canned fruit, beans, vegetables, sauces, fish, soup etc. This job of sorting food as it comes in is a huge time-saver and a big part of why the final assembly of the hampers can come together as quickly as it does.

About a week prior to the date I’ve set for hamper assembly, I review the food already received. We’re looking for items which haven’t been donated that we consider to be a staple of the hamper. The goal with the hamper is to provide the recipients with Christmas dinner and food to help them get through to the start of the new year when life returns to a more normal pattern.

Cases of donated candy waiting to be bagged up

We’ve found that many of the recipients are not comfortable making food items like dressing for turkey and gravy. So we include a stuffing mix in the hamper and cans of gravy along with cranberry sauce. A local food warehouse which receives and distributes food from manufactures to food banks across the county provided us with cereals, pasta, crackers, pasta sauce and assorted sweets.

The shopping list gets made up. By this point I’ve identified 75 hampers signed up for and allow for another 5 for a total of 80. Along with the non-perishables we’ve identified to order we order: meat, 2lbs bags of onions, 3lb bags of carrots, 10lbs potatoes, 1 lb containers of margarine, and 2 loaves of bread for each hamper. A local farmer who runs a fruit market donated 3lb bags of apples to go into them.

This year we did something different with the meat. The single person households received a $15 gift card for the local grocers, 2 person households received a turkey roll and the rest received turkeys. In the past it was turkeys and hams distributed. The local Rotary club donates the cost of the meat.

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Getting Into the Home Stretch — Hamper Assembly

In choosing the date to start the physical assembly of the hampers, I try to bring it close enough to Christmas that our recipients will have not used the items up by Christmas but not so close that our volunteers are left without some time for their last minute errands.

The banquet room we use for the program also needs to be cleared, cleaned and setup for Christmas Day when a local family cooks and serves Christmas dinner for those in the community who wish to attend. The Legion donates the hall and kitchen use.

The seniors gift baskets

I selected Dec. 20th this year.

Dec. 20th - Day 1 — Setting Up the Room

This is the point that Barb and her friend Susie arrive. Barb has done this job for almost 40 years. She is the sole remaining person from the original group who started this program.

I do the admin work of setting up the various lists we need to make things run as smoothly as possible working from the spreadsheet of information I’ve collected on each recipient.

I see to the details and mechanics of how the deliveries and the pickups will flow and the contacting the recipients to inform them when and how they will get their hampers. I also take over answering the phone as by now, the recipients are calling wanting to know when they are getting their hamper. It drives the bar staff around the bend.

Some of the Giving Tree gifts

We’ve tried giving them info sheets at signup and giving them verbal information about the schedule. Apparently few pay attention, the calls grow in frequency as the time approaches. We know it’s going to happen and we deal with it.

John, who I referenced earlier, helps to setup the room and looks after picking up food orders and when the time comes getting the trucks and volunteers for the hampers we deliver.

Barb’s magic is setting up the boxes, applying the coding to them from the lists I provide her and organizing the layout of the room for things to come together for the actual filling of the boxes. The job takes most of the day.

She’s been doing some collecting of items herself. Her network of donors has been collecting up personal items which have been assembled into small gift baskets for the seniors. My lists have to identify the genders of the singles so she can distribute these.

Rotary President brought his two youngsters to introduce the into volunteer for others

A local quilting group has provided handmade quilts for all the children under one. As many of the recipients are the same from year to year, we use one with the assumption that those born the previous year already have a quilt.

Local knitters donate hats and mitts they have made over the last year.

The hampers are sorted and then numbered by their addresses. There are two seniors apartments in town, we automatically mark them for delivery. The sorting allows the blocks of hampers to be quickly identified and loaded when it comes time to do deliveries.

The other deliveries are people who are unable to either pick up the hamper them self or get a ride to do so. We keep them to a minimum and we have a strict rule that volunteers will only deliver to the ground floor. Many of our volunteers are older people and hauling boxes of canned goods upstairs is too hard on them. Interesting how many who say they need delivery figure out a way to pick it up when they are told it will not be carried to their apartment.

More Rotarians helping to fill

The coding on the boxes identifies to those filling: the number of adults and children in the household including their age and genders, their hamper number, The Giving Tree number and any special notes I’ve added without identifying the people. Barb doesn’t even see the names.

At this point, 78 hampers are now signed up for. An extra five is setup but only two of those are able to be supplied with meat options without me going back to the grocer.

While all this has been going on, a school bus donated by a local bus firm, a volunteer driver and two helpers head to The Giving Tree to pick up the gifts for the families and bring them back to the branch.

Once they arrive and are unloaded they sort the bags numerically and make sure that the numbers match up to the list I’ve printed of Giving Tree items.

While this is being done, I start making calls to the recipients to inform them deliveries will go out between 9:30am and noon on Friday. Pickups will be between 12:30pm and 5pm on Friday. As I complete the calls I look over at the bar steward and inform him the phone should quiet down, they have all been contacted.

Not five minutes later the followup calls to me start. OH well.

Lions Club members filling candy bags

Dec. 21st — Day 2 — Filling the Hampers

During the several weeks we’ve been working toward this, I’ve been approached by several members of the community who have offered to volunteer on the program. Some I direct to John so they can help with the sorting and picking up food. The others, I advise them to wait until this day.

This is the day the hampers will be filled with the food and gift items which have been assembled. The volunteers arrive around 9:30am. This year we have people from Rotary, the Lions Club, Legion members, teens wanting their volunteer hours and members of the public.

While the hampers are going together, I’m organizing the paper work for the delivery routes, setting up the list for the hamper pickups and marking the gift cards with their hamper numbers and then grouping the cards going out on the delivery routes.

Part of a hamper before the gift items are added

During the morning I deal with several more phone calls and two more requests for hampers. One is going to a local addiction recovery house with six men. Not sure of their cooking skills I call the local grocer to arrange for a ham for them so they don’t have to figure out how to cook a turkey. The other hamper is someone contacting me about another person who had recently had an accident, was unable to work and Christmas was looking pretty grim. I add them to the list and work with Barb to get the hampers setup.

The volunteers work in teams using the food carts from our kitchen. John directs them to the food items for each team to take around to the hampers and Barb keeps a sharp eye over how much goes in each hamper in line with the number of people in the household. The produce, bread and meat gets added as the hamper goes out the door, they are kept in a cold area until then.

Once the food is in the now 80 hampers, Barb starts directing the distribution of the gift items. This is a bit slower part of the process. The food went into the hampers in about 2.5 hours and the gifts took another 2 hours.

Barb (r) directs a teenager on how to distribute the gift baskets

Weather reports indicate we’re going to have snow move in overnight and possibly some freezing rain mixed in. John and I have a discussion about the possibility of moving the deliveries up to the afternoon today so our volunteers aren’t driving in the snow. We decide to leave our plan alone and take our chances rather than trying to rush the delivery volunteers into the branch.

Day 3 — Dec. 23rd — The Distribution

The snow moved in as expected overnight but no freezing rain yet. We had about 2-3 inches on the ground by the time the guys arrived at the grocers to pick up the meat. It’s loaded into the back of one of the trucks covered with a tarp and parked at the back door of the branch near the loading area. Canada’s freezing temps becomes our freezer for the day.

As the trucks arrive, the hampers are loaded starting with the biggest delivery first. Seventeen hampers are going to one building in town. Three trucks transport them up just after 9am. As I had told them all 9:30 as the expected delivery time, I called them all and informed them the deliveries were on the way.

Final items being added as the hamper goes out the door. Yes, in the snow

As the trucks are unloaded at the first delivery they return to the branch to reload for the next building where only eight hampers are going. One truck stays behind at the first location to unload and have people receive and sign for their hampers.

The other two trucks head to the other seniors building and do the same with one truck staying behind and the third returning to reload. This third route is spread out around the area, they are individuals homes.

The truck from the first location returns and takes the last route also to individuals homes. The deliveries are done in less than ninety minutes.

Realizing we are way ahead of schedule, I get on the phone and start calling the people to come pick up their hampers earlier than expected.

This is the part that is always a challenge. Having recipients pick up their hampers is a better use of volunteers energies and resources but, we’re subject to the diligence of the recipients to get in and get them.

Every year we end up spending part or all of a second day of pickups where we wait around for a few to arrive. It’s frustrating. This year, when I made calls, I told them all they had to be in by 5pm today. No mention of any possibility of the next day.

For the first time every, IT WORKED!! All 80 hampers went out the door in one day. As we waited for the last couple of hampers to get picked up, some of the volunteers killed time by breaking down the tables so the room could be cleaned on Saturday.

Disassembling the room to get ready for Christmas Day dinner

With the hamper program completed. I’m happy to consider Christmas 2017 complete and looking forward to a few quiet days at home.

As for the rest of you. Have a wonderful Christmas and a great 2018.

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