With only three weeks until Christmas, Lola-Dawn Fennell and the staff at the Prince George Council of Seniors had some doubts about whether enough food would be donated in time for their Holiday hamper service.
After some postings online and with the help of word-of-mouth, in a matter of days, the offices were covered wall-to-wall with food.
"We were worried about donations, but the community of Prince came through in grand style once again," said Fennell. "Donation ranged from single plastic grocery bags with three or four items to truckloads of full cases of soups. We also received many donations in the form of cash or gift certificates. We are able to supple each recipient with a turkey or ham plus all the trimming for the festive meal, as well as a substantial bag of
non-perishable foods to help out in January.
PGCOS recruited 60 volunteers who were responsible for sorting donations, labeling bags, filling hampers, making phone calls and finally delivering hampers.
"[We] only have a staff of three, so this annual project would not be possible at all if we did not have such a generous volunteer force," said Fennell.
Judy Close, program co-ordinator for PGCOS, estimates there have been hundreds of volunteer hours that have gone into the assembly and distribution of the hampers.
Approximately 150 hampers assisted more than 200 individual seniors and eight grandchildren who are being raised by grandparents.
