Hamper drive hampered by COVID Christmas Cheer Board to distribute food vouchers instead By: Katie May Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020

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This article was published 13/10/2020 (1815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A century-old Winnipeg tradition is the latest in a long line of COVID-19 cancellations.

For the first time in its history, the Christmas Cheer Board won’t be giving out hampers of food and toys this year. The hampers are being replaced with vouchers for qualifying families so they can buy between $30 to $100 worth of food this holiday season — a smaller, and more expensive, venture for a charity upon which thousands rely during the holiday season.

“It took a lot of soul-searching and disappointment on our part because we’re accustomed to doing the hampers, but we had to be realistic,” said Kai Madsen, the Cheer Board’s executive director.

A thousand students packed the Christmas hampers last year — students who can no longer take field trips to the Cheer Board’s warehouse because of physical distancing restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And given that most people involved with the Cheer Board are more vulnerable to the virus — some of those who normally receive hampers lack stable housing, and many of its core volunteers are between 65 to 75 years old — the team felt they had to put a stop to the hampers, Madsen said.

“There really wasn’t a whole bunch of options available to us. We wanted to be able to help, and so this was the only option.”

Voucher amounts will be determined by family size, and they’ll be mailed to families who qualify, said Madsen, who was working through the summer and holding a lot of team meetings to find a pandemic-appropriate solution. Anticipating an influx of calls to its hamper application hotline, the Cheer Board added five more phone lines to its warehouse. Starting Nov. 12 until Dec. 13, volunteers will staff 15 phones in a spaced out, sanitized office to sign families up for the vouchers.

The change comes as food hampers have replaced communal meals at some local community centres and resource organizations during the pandemic, showing steady demand. Madsen expects the Cheer Board to give out roughly 16,500 vouchers — the same number of Christmas hampers that were distributed last year.

Vouchers will be more expensive for the non-profit to offer, Madsen expects, since the Cheer Board typically receives half the food needed for the hampers through donations. They have a budget of about $1 million to deliver thousands of vouchers.

“We have a budget for groceries, and that’s really to fill in where we don’t get enough product donated. That donated aspect won’t be in place this year, so… we have to buy everything that they used to get via purchase and donation.”

The Cheer Board will be leaning more heavily on financial donations: “Financial support is really the key,” Madsen said.

“What we need the most now is, make sure that they don’t forget to send us a donation if they can. Because the commitment to the food vouchers has been made, that means that we have to pay for them, so we will need to make sure that Manitobans — as they always do — step up and make sure that, so if you sent a cheque last year, don’t forget to send one this year.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay