Holiday Scrooge hits Vulnerable Families Video
Esquimalt -- Amber Sarota is a mother of two trying to make ends meet. As Christmas approaches she and her husband hope to get a helping hand with a hamper of food and toys for their kids. "We have a new baby, another mouth to feed. It's a lot harder. The prices of everything have gone up," says Sarota.
But applying for a hamper in Greater Victoria isn't as easy as it was last year because the Christmas Bureau has closed up shop.
"The christmas bureau was the coordinating house. It took in all the applications and all the names of people needing help and then it gave them to the agencies, individuals, offices, schools that were providng the help, says former Christmas Bureau board memeber Maureen Quested, "now people need to go to the invidivual agencies that would have provided the help in the past."
Quested sat on the Christmas Bureau board representing CFAX Santa's Anonymous. She says many of the volunteer coordinators have retired, leaving gaps in leadership and no one to contact past clients of the change.
"Christmas is so stressful and if you're low income it just doubles it or triples it, " says Meagan Duncan. She relied on the Christmas Bureay until about five years ago. "If you don't hear anything, you don't know," she says. Duncan worries that by the time her friends who need assistance apply for hampers, it will be too late.
But Quested says families shouldn't panic, as the agencies are still working together. Like many charities CFAX Santa's Anonymous is accepting applications until the end of the month, and donation drives will ramp up in the coming weeks. Quested says no one will go without this Christmas.
She seems barely ...
She seems barely making ends meet? as it was
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