Help is needed to assist 4,700 families with Christmas hamper campaign

Pandemic ups demand for Christmas hampers From CTV London's Nick Paparella – The Salvation Army is scrambling as the need for Christmas hampers has jumped due to the pandemic.

London, Ont. — The Salvation Army in London is calling it a Christmas Hamper campaign like no other due to COVID-19.

A number of changes have been made to help those in need this coming holiday season.

“As hard as it is we're getting ready we're going to work, we are going to get it done and make sure that we get to everybody that we can.” says Jon DeActis, from the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope.

In previous years they have been set up at Western Fair grounds, but because it’s a field hospital for LHSC they have moved the processing centre to Silverwoods Arena on Sycamore Street. This year they will be distributing the hampers between four different places and by appointment only starting November 26th .

This year they are handing out toys for the kids, but instead of food hamper they will be distributing food cards.

The Salvation Army says the call for help is going out. Toys are desperately needed for the kids as well as financial donations to offset the costs of the gift cards.

“It's cost us an extra 45, 50 thousand dollars this year, so if people are willing to donate money towards that, they can do that again to the Centre of Hope.” says DeActis.

For children aged zero to 12, they provide a bag of toys and they are short in a couple of age groups.

“As usual we're finding huge shortages for ages zero to 2 and ages 9 to 12.” Says Rebecca Thiessen, also with the Centre of Hope.