 The The Final Count…Neither wind, nor rain, nor supply chain disruption and Omicron could stop Christmas Hamper Party from providing the Salvation Army with—drumroll, please!—201 hampers, plus cases and cases of additional veggies and 500 paper bags for their food bank. So much this year was new… We had a lot to figure out: layout for our new venue at High Point Community Church, how to coordinate filling two shopping bags instead of a single hamper, and how to divide the work into two sessions to maintain Covid-safe numbers. Only hours before party time we decided we should try to get by with even fewer volunteers, mostly families who shared a bubble, and asked single volunteers if they would stay home. This was a tough decision and we’re grateful everyone was so understanding. In the end, challenges created innovations that turned out to be improvements. Two bags were easier for recipients to carry and gift cards were a heck of a lot lighter than turkeys! Friday night was all about the prep. Our Friday night volunteers set to work getting us ready for Saturday’s big event. To Marjorie Cullerne and Ian Johnson’s lively music, workers bagged more than 520 pounds of bulk carrots, 630 pounds of potatoes, 600 onions, 1200 oranges, 3000 tea bags, and 100 pounds of fragrant Level Ground coffee. We knew we’d have to be as prepared as possible for packing the perishables next day, because it actually takes a surprising amount of time just to open that many cases of stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, pies, treats, packaged cookies…and then there’s flattening all that cardboard for recycling. Saturday we added perishables…and more. Now it was time to open icy crates of emerald green broccoli and bag up over 400 pounds of it! The amount of food was staggering: the root veggies we’d bagged and the hundreds of boxed pies, cookies and stuffing mix we’d stacked the night before—plus 200 cartons of eggs, 400 litres of milk, 210 pounds of butter and a mountain of bread loaves higher than this vertically challenged Elf’s head! Elf Dan had worked out a floor plan for the tables so that people could pick up the heaviest items in each bag first and proceed down the line adding lighter items last. The big question was “With our new two bag system, how do we most efficiently make sure each recipient has everything they need?” After a wee bit of experimentation, all systems were “go” and our well-oiled hamper party machine went into action. At one end of the room—armed with tongs to make sure we all stayed Covid safe—Elf Rhona presided over homemade cookies and drinks. At the other, Marjorie played Christmas tunes on her violin. In between, James Mitchell, who set up our livestream, took photos as workers moved down the line collecting items for both bags before hauling them to the next room to be crowned with fresh cedar decorations courtesy of Elf Di’s décor team. At last the finished hampers were ready! To preserve recipient privacy, we don’t give out hampers ourselves, but when we imagined how difficult it might be for some people to ask for food aid, we couldn’t resist budgeting for an extra Hamper Party touch. As each recipient picked up their hamper, along with their bulging bags of goodies and a $25 Fairway gift card, they also got a little chocolate Santa. Here’s how your donation was spent. We were overwhelmed by the donations we received. Normally, we don’t reveal the names of individual donors, but how can we resist a shout out to 9-year-old Janner who wasn’t able to attend this year and instead donated his allowance savings? The final results of this year’s party? Thanks to your generosity and that of our incredible business donors, for $11,400 we donated 201 hampers plus tons of extra veggies. That’s just $56.61 per hamper! Business Donors We hope you’ll support the business donors who so wholeheartedly supported us: Level Ground Trading Fairway Markets Root Cellar Coca Cola Cassels Murray Family & Estate Law Island Eggs Victoria Box & Paper Homesold Real Estate Canadian College of Natural Nutrition V.I. Next year all our troubles will be miles away… We deeply missed our piper Josh MacDonald’s bagpipes this year but, alas, turns out bagpipes are a potentially comfy home for Covid viruses. Josh can’t regale us, but here’s a one-minute bagpipe Christmas carol medley to end this year’s party: The Elves and I wish you peaceful, safe holidays and a fantastic new year. Fingers crossed we will be able to see all of you, in person and unmasked, next year when…we go for 250! Happy Holidays! — Joyce and Organizing Elves James van Dam, Laura & Paul MacDonald, Dan Doherty, Val Sharp, Di Madill, and Lisa Paquin |
The Victoria Christmas Hamper Party
Where the Christmas Spirit lives on.
The Victoria Christmas Hamper Party 