Hundreds of volunteers in Moncton, N.B. deliver food boxes to those in need – New Brunswick | 24CA News

Roughly 300 volunteers like Maria and Phil Tomlinson drove to the Moncton Coliseum on Wednesday to load up their automobiles with meals containers to ship to these in want on Wednesday.

“We do it every year and this is our second time through today, so we just keep coming back until the boxes are done,” Maria stated whereas they waited in line.

As a part of the Food Depot Alimentaire’s annual Christmas Box program, 1,700 households within the Greater Moncton space acquired containers with over $80 price of meals.

“(The boxes) have enough for a healthy Christmas dinner as well as some cereal, some peanut butter, some bread, some things that will hold them over the Christmas Day and Boxing Day time so they can get back in the food banks early in the new year,” program co-ordinator Donna Eagles stated in an interview.

She stated the containers are funded by donations from the group, and the turkey or ham included are offered by the Sue Stultz & Moncton Firefighters Turkey Drive.

She stated there was an elevated demand from meals banks throughout the province this yr.

“We had to cap (the program) at 1,700 because that’s physically all that we could do here,” she stated.

Everything from packing the containers to the transportation and loading them into automobiles is dealt with by a big workforce of volunteers.

Eagles stated roughly 150 volunteers confirmed up on Monday and Tuesday to pack the meals.

“We have just had a fantastic time, everyone is having so much fun in doing what we do. I cannot begin to tell you how appreciative we are of the volunteers that come in,” Eagles stated.

Riverview firefighter Jonathan Gorham was serving to direct site visitors as a gradual stream of vehicles drove in on Wednesday afternoon.

“The people are, you just see the excitement on their faces that they want to help out in a small way and it’s great,” he stated.

Members of Bernice McNaughton High School’s hockey workforce have been loading the containers into the vehicles.

McNaughton Highlanders workforce member Michael Doucet stated it was essential for him to be there as a result of “everyone should be able to eat on Christmas and it’s sad that some people can’t.”

“We’re just here to help,” Doucet stated.

Eagles stated the Food Depot Alimentaire will consider presumably increasing this system subsequent yr to fulfill rising demand.

“We’ll do a debrief after this program and accommodate and evaluate and set our plans for next year as deemed necessary,” she stated.

&copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.