Bonnyville Friendship Centre prepare Thanksgiving hampers

Employees at the Bonnyville Friendship Centre along with a handful of RCMP officers had their hands full this morning filling up Thanksgiving dinner hampers that will be sent out to families and individuals in need.

The hampers will be packed to the brim with all kinds of food you’d find at the table for a Thanksgiving feast, including a ham, five pounds of potatoes, caesar salad, a box of stuffing, two pounds of carrots, gravy mix, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie for dessert along with some whipped cream.

The centre has around 60 hampers lined up as part of their food bank, which will sit in place of their usual activities.

“Normally we would have a Thanksgiving dinner, where we open it to the public and they come in and we’d serve them a meal,” said BFC client support worker Nicole Mitchell. “Because of COVID this year we can’t do that with the regulations, but we still wanted to do something, so the solution was hampers.”

The BFC had the foresight to know they wouldn’t be able to host their dinner as per usual, and used the majority of September sending their clients registrations forms to receive the hampers.

The Centre’s annual Christmas dinner is also likely to be canceled and replaced with a COVID conscious effort, though as of yet there haven’t been any announcements from BFC staff.