Cape Breton food bank makes last minute preparations for Christmas dinner giveaway

Volunteers prep Christmas kindness Volunteers from the North Sydney Food Bank have been collecting food and donations for weeks – leading up to Christmas.

Volunteers at the North Sydney Food Bank have been collecting food and donations in preparation for a special Christmas tradition.

Stacy Ellis with the North Sydney Food Bank says they’re expecting 325 local families to arrive Friday to take part in their Christmas dinner giveaway.

“We will be giving away Christmas dinners … we have lots of beautiful knitted hats, scarfs, mitts that different people in the community have donated to us,” said Ellis.

“We’ve made up over 250 treat bags of chocolates and sweets.”

Ellis says even a local elementary school is taking part in this year’s event.

“The children at Ferrisview Elementary School, for the second year now, have made Christmas cards for all our clients, so we’re going to put one in every Christmas box,” she said.

“Clients are overwhelmed to receive such beautiful things for Christmas.”

Marjorie Cluney is a client who relies on the food bank.

“Being on low income, it’s not easy to be able to get everything. But not just the food bank alone, Christmas time it really benefits because it’s not just the food we’re getting, we’re also getting extra toys to give to our children and we get gift cards as well.”

Ellis says a lot of the food is bought by food bank volunteers with donations received from the all over Cape Breton.

“The generosity of the community is overwhelming to the North Sydney Food Bank at Christmas. We are very, very blessed to have and be so supported,” said Ellis.

“We have been getting donations of food from little children to schools in the area, to businesses, to just individuals in their home who’ve been collecting stuff.”

She says people have been donating for the special holiday event for the past few months.

“It’s an honour for us to be able to help out the wonderful citizens in our community who just need a hand up sometimes. And so, at Christmas, it’s our pleasure to be able to help them.”

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