For the month of December, coin boxes in all Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries locations across Winnipeg raised funds for the Christmas Cheer Board of Winnipeg.

An amazing $14,472.14 was raised! We are incredibly grateful for the support as these funds will go directly toward supporting our 2025 hamper program!

News Release

December 22, 2024

Christmas Cheer Board still has more to give

Winnipeg - Back in November the Christmas Cheer Board looked at hamper application numbers and out
of an abundance of caution, decided to order more food for the coming holiday season.
“With numbers projected to shatter last year’s record applications, we ordered extra food to make sure
we didn’t run out this year.” Said Cheer Board executive director Shawna Bell, “Since then, our
application numbers have slowed down and we find ourselves in a position of having extra food hampers
(approximately 500) in the last days leading up to Christmas.”
We understand that some other organizations across the city have over-committed to supporting those
in need this season. We’d like to urge those organizations to let their applicants know that if they haven’t
already applied with the Cheer Board, they are welcome to reach out to us at 204-989-5683 to apply.
New applicants will need to come to the Cheer Board location at 895 Century St. to receive their food
hamper.”

Hours of operation leading up to Christmas are Monday Dec. 23, 9 am – 8 pm and Tuesday Dec. 24, 10
am – 2 pm. Closed for the 25 & 26, the Cheer Board opens for pickup only on Dec. 27 & 28 – 10 am – 2
pm.

“When you have what you need, you build a bigger table. That’s what we’re all about.” Said Bell. “Happy
Holidays to everyone!”

Anything left over by Dec. 28 will make it back into the community. The Cheer Board works with Harvest
Manitoba and other groups to ensure all extra food is available to those in need across Winnipeg.

The Scottish Gentleman’s Club dinner on November 29, 2024.

Christmas Cheer Board Executive Director, Shawna Bell with Scottish Gentleman's Club Members
and guest speaker Peter Mansbridge. The organization generously gifted the Cheer Board
with $10,000 towards the annual campaign.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Christmas Cheer Board! As we head in to our 105th year, we again will be located at 895 Century Street.

With a tradition of giving for over 100 years, the Christmas Cheer Board remains a community-driven and grass-roots team that delivers food, toys and cheer to people in need.

The 2023 Cheer Board season saw well over 20,000 hampers distributed to individuals and families across Winnipeg. It demonstrated an unprecedented need in Winnipeg and came with it’s own challenges. While we may have not reached every family last year, we start this year thinking about the increase of individuals accessing our resources and how to best meet that need.

As always, the Christmas Cheer Board cannot spread joy without the help of our amazing volunteers! There are many opportunities to volunteer at the Christmas Cheer Board – from taking applications over the phone or helping pack hampers in our warehouse to delivering hampers to those in need – WE NEED YOU!

We have many events planned for this year and they are coming fast! The Hamper Application Call Centre will open Tuesday, November 5th at 9 am with hamper packing for thousands of recipients starting shortly after. Pick up and Deliveries will start in December.

As we celebrate our 105th year of giving, we hope you can join us in making 2024 an incredible season!

The warehouse was filled with hampers packed with love and care in the hopes volunteer delivery drivers would soon be there. 

The Christmas Cheer Board warehouse has plenty of food hampers and toys ready to be picked up and delivered.  

There are deliveries that need to be made throughout the city, and volunteers can request the area(s) they would like to deliver to. 

There is no registration needed to be a delivery driver. Those who are interested must simply come to the warehouse (859 Century St) between 9 am and 8 pm during the week and 9 am and 4 pm on the weekend. A Christmas Cheer Board staff member/volunteer will go through the process and get the volunteers set up to make their trips!  

It’s encouraged to have two individuals delivering together and that they can comfortably lift boxes weighing 25-30 lbs.

The need for drivers is quite urgent and the last day for deliveries will be December 23. 

We appreciate all those who donate, deliver and support the Christmas Cheer Board. It’s so important that we give back to the community now more than ever. 
 

Most people would have kept driving.

One winter day, 13 years ago, Ron Paul saw the Christmas Cheer Board of Winnipeg sign and made an impulsive decision to pull into the warehouse parking lot.

“I just retired, so, I figured I better do something. So, I saw the Christmas Cheer Board sign and I just went in, and they put me to work right away,” he said with a laugh.

It isn’t beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it hasn’t felt quite as festive at the Christmas Cheer Board, either.

The charity’s Feed-A-Family program needs more sponsors.  “(It hasn’t felt) enough like Christmas,” said program co-ordinator Pat McBeth.

“Even though we have a lot of applications because people are in need, we don’t have a lot of sponsors coming through yet, and we’d really like to get more.”

Sponsors include individuals, families, teams, community groups and businesses who are matched with, and build a hamper for, a Winnipeg family.

The cheer board delivered more than 18,000 hampers in 2022, thanks in large part to the nearly 2,000 sponsors who stepped up. It expects to deliver more than 19,000 care packages this year, an increasingly difficult task with little more than 1,300 sponsors currently on board.

“I’m thinking because it doesn’t look like Christmas, they’re not there yet,” McBeth said. “People aren’t thinking about winter and Christmas at the moment so, hopefully, the sponsors will figure it out — maybe after Black Friday.”

Carol Frampton has always been ahead of the game since she started sponsoring the Feed-A-Family program 10 years ago. She first assembled hampers through work but has added sponsorship groups through her rugby team, yoga group and book club. She’s recruited 60 people in total to help recruit goods, assemble and deliver hampers.

“We all have so much and we know they don’t. I guess with my job (as a physiotherapist), I actually visit people in their homes and I see the situations people live in,” Frampton said. “It’s just, we see the need and we have so much. Frankly, the giver gets as much out of it as the (families) so definitely it lifts our spirits at work.

“It’s developed a real sense of community at work, for sure. Everybody gets excited about who’s the family this year. So it’s good all around.”

Frampton organizes one hamper per group and requests a large family (seven to 10 people) to receive a big boost during the holiday season. Each hamper is catered to a family’s food preferences and can include books and even winter gear.

“They give us the phone numbers so… I always phone (the family) and we try to personalize it as much as we can. So, I’ll make sure if they’re Muslim, they don’t get pork products or if they’re vegetarian, we kind of play with the hamper menu,” Frampton said.

The St. Gianni Beretta Molla Roman Catholic Church, which is in its sixth year of sponsorship, plans to assemble and deliver 15 hampers.

“In our community, there’s a very strong belief that you need to give,” said Rick Steinke, head organizer of hampers at the church in southwest Winnipeg. “Take a Winston Churchill quote: ‘We make a living by what we get and a life by what we give.’ Certainly, part of the faith is that charity and helping others in your community — it’s important to do that. I think Christmas is a time that really reminds us of that.”

The church, which launched its drive after its Remembrance Day mass, will assemble its hampers so they are ready to be delivered following the Dec. 17 service.

“Last year, we did 12. This year, we’re doing 15 and we’re trying to increase it. If we can do 15, next year I’m sure we’ll look at trying to increase it again because we know the need is out there,” Steinke said. “You go to the grocery store just like I do, we all know it’s not easy and the need is strong.”

When the cheer board opened its phone lines on Nov. 3, it was inundated with calls. The charity received 30,000 phone call attempts.

McBeth said demand has ceased to slow down and that sponsors remain the organization’s No. 1 priority as it prepares to open for hamper pickups on Dec. 5.

“We really would like to see more companies, organizations and individuals fill out our sponsor request form. We can match them with families as quickly as possible — we do it within a day or two — and then they can get the great feeling of going out there, making a hamper and delivering it,” McBeth said.

Interested sponsors can complete the registration form online at christmascheerboard.ca or call 204-989-5680.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

By Sam Thompson  Global News
Posted November 24, 2023 10:04 am
 Updated November 24, 2023 5:51 pm
 

The rising cost of living means the holiday season isn’t quite so merry for many families, but Winnipeg’s Christmas Cheer Board is hoping to once again spread some holiday cheer to those in need.

Cheer board executive director Shawna Bell told 680 CJOB’s The Start that although the organization only began taking calls a few weeks ago for this season, the phones have been ringing off the hook — to the point where the cheer board is expecting to deliver upwards of 19,000 hampers this year.

“There’s been such a high demand — ever since our phones started ringing on Nov. 3, they haven’t stopped,” she said.

“We’re trying to process the applications as quickly as we can, because we know the need is so great out there and we want to help.”

 
0:38‘The need is so great out there’: Christmas Cheer Board ramping up for hamper season
Bell said, as always, the cheer board is looking for volunteers to help deliver the hampers to families that need them, but there are other ways Winnipeggers can get involved with the organization, which has been helping local residents for more than a century.

“So we have this excellent program that we call the Feed-a-Family program, and folks can call in or go online to register to sponsor a family — and basically we give them a list of everything that goes into the hampers.”

Bell said this helps give families even more, as it allows donors to customize hampers to a recipient family’s individual needs.

For families with children, that often means toys — with gifts for the 10- to 14-year-old age group being the hardest to come by.

“If anyone wants to bring down new, unwrapped toys, we’d be more than happy to receive them,” Bell said.

“It’s very exciting for us, and our toy department is so very happy to see toys as they’re coming through.”

  
Friday and Saturday at St. Vital Centre, the cheer board is recognizing 40 years with the Christmas Miracle donation drive, collecting cash and toy donations for families and kids in need across the city.

Volunteers will be on site accepting donations.

“It’s pretty amazing when this community comes together. Sometimes it seems like it’s difficult and we’re so far apart from each other, but it takes an event like this.

“Our organization sees it each and every year, how people just rally together. There’s nothing that touches me more than watching folks coming through the door, all united in one cause to help their community and the neighbours out, and Winnipeg’s always amazing for it.”