OSHaRE (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
OSHaRE in Owen Sound is seeing an increased need for its services as donations for the holiday season roll in.
Executive Director Colleen Trask-Seaman says the need from the community has continued to grow throughout the past year.
“We have actually served 130,000 meals already this year, which is up from the 123,000 we did last year,” says Trask-Seaman. “As the need continues to rise, our need for donations of food and monetary donations obviously increases as well, especially with the rising cost of food.”
Trask-Seaman says as always, they expect to see more families needing assistance this time of year.
“Last year in the month of December, we served 8,400 meals, but at this point, we are seeing about a 14 to 20 per cent increase a month over last year,” says Trask-Seaman.
She says donations have been pouring in from a supportive community, including both food and cash donations.
For those who would like to make a donation to the organization, she says they can accept all non-perishable foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, bread products from stores, and meat as long as it comes with a receipt which shows it came from a grocery store.
Trask-Seaman says OSHaRE will be open for the whole Christmas season, providing meals to those in need.
“On the 25 of December, we will be serving our Christmas meal along side our partners from the Salvation Army. We will be doing that at our location from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then we will be open on Boxing Day and all the way through the holidays for our guests,” says Trask-Seaman.
For more details on how to support OSHaRE, visit its website here.