How the winter pantry appeal works

Every November the pantry shelves empty faster than we can fill them. Heating bills arrive, seasonal work ends, and the number of households we see each week goes from around three hundred to more than four hundred.

Rice, beans, oil and soap, for four hundred households a week, until the spring.

The winter appeal is how we stay ahead of it. Its goal, $18,400, is what it costs to stock the pantry from December to March: rice, beans, oil, canned fish, oats, diapers and soap, bought in bulk from the regional food bank at a fraction of the shop price.

We update the figure on the Causes page every Monday, and in April we publish exactly what was bought. If the appeal raises more than it needs, the rest goes to whichever appeal is furthest from its goal.