The Christmas Bureau of Edmonton is seeing an increase in demand this holiday season. Ana Sandiego with the bureau joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison to discuss how you can help Edmontonians in need.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Kent Morrison: Hundreds of people are gathering for breakfast at the Edmonton convention center and to enjoy a little holiday cheer, while supporting a charity that delivers tens of thousands of meals and gifts to Edmontonians in need at Christmas. This year, there’s been a 39-per cent increase in demand. Anna, can you tell us about this breakfast? It hasn’t happened for years. Why did you bring it back?
Ana Sandiego: This is the 39th annual Christmas Bureau breakfast and we’re really excited. We brought it back because it’s the Christmas Bureau’s signature fundraiser. We’re fundraising to deliver festive food hampers and support our Adopt-A-Teen program.
Kent: Can you tell us more about how the program works? How does the Christmas Bureau take these donations and the money and create it into all these gifts and food for people?
Ana: When folks support our events like this, or when they donate online, that goes directly to program delivery for these two programs. Our deserving individuals and families that have applied will receive their hampers. Some of them will receive grocery gift cards as well, and then our teens in the Adopt-A-Teen program will receive gift cards to be able to purchase things they need, things they’ve been wanting and haven’t been able to get. It brings some festive joy and happiness and a little bit of freedom to them this holiday season.
Kent: How many people are you hoping to help during the Christmas season?
Ana: In 2023, we actually helped around 55,000 people and we got over 17,000 approved applications. We’re seeing that we’re probably going to see those same numbers this year, maybe slightly higher, so that’s kind of what we’re expecting.
Kent: There are many people there enjoying breakfast with you this morning, but others are enjoying their breakfast at home who may want to help. How can others get involved in helping you?
Ana: We would love to engage the community. We have opportunities available for volunteering, but the best way to help would be to make a donation to the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton, because we are fundraising to deliver the program next month. So anything that we raise right now is going to help the program, and it’s going to go directly to the hampers being delivered on Dec. 21.
Kent: What do you hear from your volunteers when you all gather for delivery day, about the importance of making this happen every year?
Ana: It’s a really meaningful experience for our volunteers to be able to get involved in that. I think for a lot of people, Christmas and the holidays is a time of warmth. It’s a time to gather with family and loved ones. But also for a lot of people, it’s a really lonely time, and it’s a really stressful time. I think for our volunteers to get involved in being able to bring some joy to families, to people, individuals, seniors, who are feeling loneliness during this time, it’s a really fulfilling feeling. It also lets them know that it’s not the stereotypical person that is low income, or not who you might think would be using programs like ours. It’s people that your kids go to school with. It opens people’s eyes as to who’s actually using these programs and how they can get more involved.
The Christmas Bureau is asking for donations to be made online so as to avoid being impacted by the Canada Post Strike.