Amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays, unsung heroes like Debbie Allen are at work in the community.
As major of the Flin Flon Salvation Army, Allen is organizing the church’s Christmas food hamper program for area residents in need.
“It’s nice to see the smiles on people’s faces,” says Allen.
The Salvation Army’s hamper program will wrap up in the coming weeks as out-of-town deliveries will be made and local families and individuals will collect their hampers.
“We invite the [area] families to come and pick up their own hampers,” says Allen. “We have a selection of additional items to go through, coffee and tea, and Christmas music. It’s a social event.”
The Salvation Army will this year help just shy of 100 families and over 110 children through a food hamper and toy donations.
Each hamper includes the fixings for a Christmas dinner, breakfast and one other meal.
“Generally, its three days’ worth of groceries,” says Allen.
The hampers come in four sizes, starting with small, which feeds one or two people, through to extra large for bigger families.
Allen says the majority of hampers delivered are for single individuals and couples.
Though this is only her second Christmas season in Flin Flon, Allen has been a part of the Salvation Army in four other locations in as many provinces.
She says the goal is always the same.
“We’re helping people, but we’re helping them help themselves,” she says. “We want to give a hand up rather than a handout.”
The Salvation Army is one of a number of organizations in the Flin Flon area that helps area residents in need, not only at Christmas, but year round as well.
Allen, along with the help of the community, also runs a soup kitchen during the school months on Mondays and Wednesdays.
While programs such as the hampers and the free lunches are needed, Allen says she wishes that wasn’t the case.
“We would love to end poverty,” she says. “We’d rather not give out hampers because we would like if there was no need for the hampers. And we’d love not to have to provide soup for lunches. We would love for there not to be a need.
“But the reality is, there is a need when there are extra expenses like a [higher] hydro bill when it gets cold. That’s when people need us.”
Meanwhile, the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree is again up and generating a good response.
The Angel Tree is on display at Walmart with tags representing the gender and age of a child in need of a gift this Christmas.
Allen says the toys will not be picked up until next week, so she doesn’t know what has already been donated.
But she does know girls between the ages of seven and 10 have a large number of items already donated for their age group.
The Angel Tree will be on display until Dec. 20 for donations to be made.
The food hampers will be delivered to Sherridon on Dec. 19 and to Cranberry Portage on Dec. 22. Local pick-ups will be available on Dec. 20.
