A few weeks ago, when I announced that my staff and I had purchased hundreds of toys for the Santas Anonymous children’s charity, I told you that it was not going to be my only charitable effort this Christmas season. Unfortunately, at the time, I had not nailed down the details of exactly what I was going to do, so I couldn’t make an official announcement. But, now everything is ready to go, so I wanted to give you an update.
A few days before Christmas, I’ll be heading out with a member of my staff to distribute food hampers to 15 less fortunate families in Edmonton through the Christmas Bureau, one of Edmonton’s longest running and most respected nonprofit charitable organizations. This is one of the largest local charitable initiatives I have become involved with.
The food hampers have everything needed for a traditional Christmas dinner including turkey, ham, vegetables, potatoes, cranberry sauce, oranges, soup, coffee, peanut butter, cookies, candy, jam, stuffing and butter.
The families I will be delivering food hampers to have been selected by the Christmas Bureau, which works regularly with families in need of support in our community. I am very excited to go deliver their hampers personally to them, which I think is really cool and rewarding.
I’m very happy to be part of this initiative. I believe that everyone in our community deserves to have a healthy traditional Christmas meal. Yet, I know that poverty has struck many of our friends and neighbors and the cost of a turkey and trimmings are out of reach for many large families. Most of us have fond memories of huge Christmas meals with our families. The fact that there are children out there who are at risk of not being able to have a nice holiday meal really saddens me.
Remember, people don’t choose to live in poverty. For many families struggling to make ends meet this can be the difference between having a Christmas meal and not. Can you imagine being a parent on Christmas day with no gifts or festive meal for your kids? Think of how stressful that would be. This is a reality for many Edmontonians.
This is why I’m working with The Christmas Bureau to help provide Christmas dinners to people who need our help. I hope you will think about doing the same.
Merry Christmas
