Sudbury’s Salvation Army launches 'Christmas Kettle' campaign

SUDBURY -

The Salvation Army's Kettle Campaign is back for the 131st year. The iconic Christmas kettles will be back in shopping centres, grocery stores and various stores across Sudbury this holiday season.

The annual Christmas Kettle campaign raises money and donations for the Salvation Army's year-round programs, including emergency food hampers, Christmas toy hampers, hot meals, and more.

"Our food bank has grown to where we’re serving approximately 600 families a month," said Lyn Mullen, co-ordinator of the kettle campaign with the Salvation Army in Sudbury.

"We do receive a fair amount of items from the Sudbury Foodbank but there are times that we have to go out and buy extras that the food bank doesn’t have. We try to make sure there is some kind of meat product in every order." 

Mullen says this campaign would not be possible without the help from the volunteers. 

One of the volunteers is Rob Ungar. He has been volunteering with the Salvation Army for six years now. He says he is a strong believer in what the organization does. 

"I volunteer for the Salvation Army for what I see that it does for the people within the community and what it does for other places. I used to do this up in Grande Prairie Alberta also. I just believe in what they are accomplishing," said Ungar. 

Ungar says people in Sudbury have always been so generous when it comes to making donations, especially around the Christmas holidays. 

"Even if they spent an awful lot in the store, they still remember there’s other who have less than them," said Ungar. 

This year, the Salvation Army is hoping to raise a total of $220,000. 

There are over 2,000 kettle locations across Canada and in addition to cash donations, you can now tap your debit or credit card there to make a donation.

"We have our tap machine which is instead of a debit machine. Other years we’ve had a debit machine that you’ve had to hand to somebody, they put in their information and hand it back. This year they just take their debit card and they tap $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, $25.00, or $50.00," said Mullen. 

The Salvation Army says it’s still looking for 50 to 100 volunteers this holiday season.

Those interested in volunteering should contact their local Salvation Army.