Hobart City Mission’s urgent need for donations for babies and children for Christmas
As cost of living pressures bite, one charity is urgently seeking donations for babies and children this Christmas and also donations of groceries. Find out how to help.
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It is a race against the clock as the Hobart City Mission tries to find another 800 presents for babies and children, and 600 bags of groceries for families, desperate for help this Christmas.
The Mission will begin distributing presents, and grocery, personal care and pet food packs on Monday and already has enough items for 2500 children and 1000 families.
However, it says it is “desperately short of our promise to those in need who have already reached out and registered for support this Christmas”.
Verity Davis, the Mission’s events officer, said toys or gift cards were needed for babies and infants aged up to two and 9-11-year-olds.
“We’ve got close to 3000 children who’ll come and receive a gift next week and we’re struggling with gifts for children aged between nine and 11, and we’re struggling, particularly for little babies,” she said.
“So zero to two is our youngest age category, which is unusual because we don’t normally see that.
“We normally see our donors connect with younger children when they think about Christmas and giving and toys, and our teenagers often miss out.”
While 3000 children will be helped, Ms Davis said close to 4000 or more toys would be given out.
She said a shortfall in donations highlighted cost of living pressures.
“You see people in higher income brackets, starting to feel the pinch and talking about the impacts of interest rate rises, whereas the people that we are supporting are being impacted by the cost of living right down to whether they’ve got food on the table or not,” Ms Davis said.
“You’ve also got that middle group of people and they are the core donor bunch and they’re starting to feel it too.
“As they tighten their belts, their ability to give also has to tighten and constrict.
“They’re still giving, but I believe it’s just to a lesser value to ease the pressure on their own budgets.
“Where they might have had $50 in the past to choose a toy, they might now go, well, let’s just give $20.”
Salvation Army Christmas appeal manager Amelia Natoli said the Salvos had distributed toys and hampers to more than 1500 families who have sought help at their 13 relief centres and including as far afield as Cape Barren Island.
Like the Hobart City Mission, she said the Salvos had also struggled to find presents for babies and 9 to 11-year-olds.
“We have very fortunately, had some support come in over the last couple of days, because we really put the call out, and I was able to do an order and get some additional toys in for those age groups,” Ms Natoli said.
“In saying that most of our tables in other age groups, have a table with gifts on it and then some spares underneath.
“We supported 1300 families last year, which was gifts for 2290 children and we’ve already exceeded that this year, so I reckon we’re going to be hitting 1500 or 1600 families.
“Our pantry shelves are looking bare so we need food for people who are really worried for the period between Christmas and New Year.”
Gift cards or toys ($30 goal per child) or groceries items can be made to the Hobart City Mission Christmas Warehouse at 19 Main Road Moonah (next to the Moonah Megastore Op Shop) between 9am and 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
Originally published as Hobart City Mission’s urgent need for donations for babies and children for Christmas
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