MORRISBURG – Over 170 food boxes were packed with care Tuesday morning as volunteers with the South Dundas Christmas Exchange put a bow on a year’s worth of preparation for the big day. The Christmas Exchange ensures families and individuals in need have a great Christmas with a meal, and for families with children, presents under the tree. Volunteers descended on the Morrisburg Legion December 17 to put it all together.
Each Christmas Exchange box includes either a ham or a turkey, all the sides needed for a Christmas meal. Money is raised locally through donations and the organization purchases all the food locally. This year, 133 family food boxes and 37 single food boxes were prepared, and 527 people will be supported by the volunteer group’s effort. This is an increase from 2023 when 122 families, 127 children, and 478 people in all were helped.
Working hand-in-hand with the Christmas Exchange, the local Angel Tree campaign ensured that 143 children will have gifts under the tree December 25.
Chairperson Bonnie McNairn called the support for the Angel Tree “phenomenal”. On top of presents, each child will receive new PJs, socks, colouring books, and story books all collected from the community. The Angel Tree is run by the Morrisburg and District Lions Club in Morrisburg, and by volunteer Sandra Johnston in Iroquois.
Like many charities concerned about the impact the Canada Post strike would have on donations, McNairn said everything worked out for the Christmas Exchange.
“Although we were worried early on with a slow start to our financial campaign and then the mail strike, the South Dundas community has once again rallied to generously support those in need in our community.”
The Christmas Exchange is working with local food bank Community Food Share to distribute the 37 individual food boxes. An additional 33 gift bags will go out to seniors in South Dundas.
These bags include some essentials that have become more expensive with the past two years of inflation. This is the second year that the Christmas Exchange has provided the gift bags.
McNairn credited the work of the volunteers and the support of the community for the Christmas Exchange’s success.
“We have a great team of volunteers who pull this all together every year, and we are backed by fantastic community support that supplies us with storage area, our food boxes, our distribution hall, our advertising and our phone-in hot line,” she said. “On behalf of all the clients we serve we can’t thank the community enough.”
Volunteer David Lapier credited the organization for all the work completed.
“We’re here for a couple of hours, but all the work that Bonnie, Brian, and everyone else does throughout the year is just outstanding.”
This is the 36th year that the Christmas Exchange has made the season merry in South Dundas.
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