An increase in the number of families in need this Christmas, has forced Moncton Headstart to make some tough choices.
On Monday, they closed their registration for their annual Christmas event early.
Executive Director Caroline Donnelle said on Friday, they had already given gifts to 500 children through Toyland.
It is an annual Christmas event that provides toys to families in need, and it just opened on December 4.
“We’re running low on supplies and we want to make sure that people who are already registered in the system can be served. If we had kept it open, we would have been very much at risk,” Donnelle says.
She says donations are just not coming up like they were last year.
Last year, they served around 1500 children in two weeks, but this year in just two and a half days, they had already provided for 500.
“That’s a huge increase from last year. We recognized that the demand was really high, and we were watching the supply we had diminished pretty rapidly. That made us think, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. We have to slow this down because we’re going to run out of stuff,” Donnelle adds.
They closed 225 registrations.
Donnelle says donations are down across the board because people are just stretched right now.
“We’ve been doing this for years, but the economy has shifted, where everything is so much more expensive now. People who would have ordinarily donated in the past have stopped because they need the money. Maybe that extra money is now going into food or fuel bills. The charitable sector is hurting today,” Donnelle stressed.
She says all of the families who are currently registered will be served, but they have also reduced the number of toys they are able to provide.
Donations of unwrapped toys or monetary donations are still desperately needed.
“We’re always short on teen stuff, but we serve families with children from babyhood to right up until the age of 18 or 19. If somebody sees something and you think some kid might enjoy it for Christmas drop it off at Moncton Headstart,” Donnelle adds.
Gifts must be new and unwrapped and can be dropped off Monday to Friday between 8 am and 4 pm.
