It was the second year St Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, St Mary’s Anglican Church, The Seventh-day Adventist Church (ADRA) and Uniting Church made a joint effort to get the food out in time for Christmas for families in our community who struggle, financially and for various other reasons. They ended up with 96 families on the list, many of them single-parent, but made a few extra hampers just in case.

Last week when the Mail visited St Mary’s Family Centre to see how the hampers were going, Margaret Wheeler from St Vinnie’s said the high rent and price increase in food meant receiving a hamper could actually turn Christmas around completely for some.

“A lot of these families wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas,” she said. “If they see everyone else around them have toys and food, and the whole excitement of Christmas – this way they can be part of that.”

Ron Mason from ADRA said they had a case where a mother had been heard saying, ‘We’re not having Christmas this year’, and decided to make her a hamper.

It takes quite a lot of work to put the hampers together and make sure everyone gets the same sort of things.

“The larger families, of course, get extras,” Ron said.

Merry Christmas and happy new year from the help organisations.