For the first time since the pandemic, the Santa Train left Mission West Coast Express Station after hauling in a load of donations. Mission Community Services staff and volunteers braved the cold weather on Saturday and Sunday morning to collect donations for the Christmas Bureau.
Riders of the West Coast Express brought new, unwrapped toys to the station and received a return ticket in exchange. The Christmas Bureau took in approximately 30 bags of toys to go along with cash donations.
Tracy McCarthy, manager of housing, outreach and the Christmas Bureau with Mission Community Services, has been working with the organization for 13 years. She says the Christmas Bureau is receiving more donations than expected with issues such as inflation and unemployment affecting the community.
The bureau is quickly approaching its fundraising goal of $160,000. The organization has raised $94,000 so far with less than two weeks until families come to the Christmas Bureau to receive food hampers and gifts on December 16. However, Mission Community Services accepts donations throughout the year and up to New Year’s Eve.
The Christmas Bureau has seen an increase of 100 families making use of their programs from last year, McCarthy says. The organization currently serves 460 families, including 200 families of two to three people, 140 individuals, and 120 families of four or more people.
“We increased the low income thresholds [to use our programs] because of what the economy is today,” McCarthy said. “Even middle class families are coming in now because the cost of rent and other things are so high.”
McCarthy says there is a higher demand for services this year across the board —with the Christmas Bureau, food centre, emergency shelters and extreme weather shelters.
“We’re full every night for everything — I never have any vacancy,” McCarthy said. “We’ve always had a high demand in Mission — we’re always turning people away.”
The food centre has also witnessed a significant increase in usage. McCarthy says they’ve seen a 20 to 30 per cent increase in demand in November and December compared to the rest of the year.
Mission Community Services employs close to 100 staff and has 30 consistent volunteers. However, the number of volunteers is down from approximately 140 pre-pandemic. McCarthy says the decline in volunteers is proving difficult for some of the programming.
“The lack of volunteers has hurt us but we’re hoping we’ll build that up again now that things are more open.”
McCarthy says Mission Community Services struggles with donations after Christmas. For a bulk of their programming, there is a growing need for household items.
“A lot of the time, we need socks and underwear. There’s a huge need for toiletries — toothbrushes, razors — we try to combine those things because we want to help get [our participants] back into the workforce. But when you’re homeless, you don’t have all those things and you usually just have a backpack with a change of clothes. So we always need those kinds of donations.”
Despite the challenges, the Mission Community Services team is pleased with the fundraising efforts for the Christmas Bureau.
“The community has really stepped up in hard times,” McCarthy said. “We never expected it [to go this well]. When the chips were down, the community definitely came forward. Everybody’s struggling but without the community’s support, we wouldn’t be doing this.”
Toy and monetary donations can be dropped off at the Mission Christmas Bureau until Dec. 16, at 142-32555 London Ave in the Mission Junction Mall. After Dec 16th – Monetary donations can be dropped off at the Main Office at 33179 2nd Ave.
Food Donations can be dropped off at at the Mission Food Centre at 3-32618 Logan Avenue on Mondays 9-12, Wednesdays 2:30-4:30 p.m., and Fridays 9-12.