A5

By James Mallory

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The Bathurst Volunteer Centre's annual Christmas Food Basket Campaign was again successful, thanks to the generosity of local residents.

A total of 10,500 food items collected, were enough to fill 425 food boxes for needy families, said Michel Godin, manager of the Bathurst Volunteer Centre.

That surpassed the target set of filling 400 boxes, he noted.

"That's a good year. We also received $3,000 in cash just from the food drive itself."

The food boxes, filled with turkeys and all the fixings, were delivered on Dec. 18 and 19. Mr. Godin said the campaign was hard work but rewarding at the same time.

"It's a very busy time and it's hard, because we don't have a lot of staff and we have to count on volunteers to help, but once they're out, it's a very rewarding time that we can help so many families," he said.

Meanwhile, the goal of raising $20,000 through the Volunteer Centre's board of directors Christmas fundraiser was reached. This was a great help towards the Christmas food baskets and towards keeping food stock up at the Volunteer Centre during slower months like January.

"Christmas is so big with the food boxes (but) food banks go on 12 months a yea,r so we do need donations and help year round," said Mr. Godin.

"Now that the food drive and the Christmas boxes are out, the goal would be to get all our other services running back on a regular basis...because we had to stop some of them in order to concentrate on our Christmas food boxes."

The Volunteer Centre is located on King Avenue, across from the Bathurst Post Office.