Winnipeg organizations looking for help to battle increased costs

The season of giving is upon us, typically a busy time of year for organizations like Siloam Mission, that provide services to those in need.

But like many Canadians, these organizations haven’t been immune to feeling the pinch of inflation and the rising cost of food, which could make it a challenge to keep up with demand this holiday season.

“We’re certainly feeling it that everything we’re trying to do for people costs more, and we’re seeing the most people we’ve ever seen,” explained Tesse Blaikie Whitecloud, the CEO of Siloam Mission.

“A big piece of what we’re experiencing at Siloam mission around the rising cost of food and inflation, in general, is the amount of seniors that are experiencing homelessness for the first time showing up here to access services and supports.”

Adding, “So while we’re certainly experiencing and in our own budgets in terms of all of the work we’re doing to support people, we’re also seeing come newly into homelessness especially in that area starting to struggle because of the rising cost of everything.”

Siloam Mission isn’t alone, according to Cindy Titus, from Main Street Project, many other organizations in downtown Winnipeg that provide similar services, have also been trying to combat the crunch of rising costs.

“Everything is much more expensive than it was just a couple of years ago and we definitely see the impacts of that here at Main Street Project, so we see definitely an increase in homelessness across the city. Our mobile outreach program sees a lot more folks these days and our emergency shelter is a lot busier as well,” explained Titus.

While times are tough for many, both organizations echoed similar sentiments that support from the community remains high, something Titus is very grateful for.

“We definitely understand that times are harder for a lot of people in the province, and I would say that people are still very generous to Main Street Project and the work that we do and we’re very appreciative of that,” said Titus.

“Folks are still donating socks for our sock drive, we have our holiday gift drive going on right now and we’re seeing lots of support come through for that so we’re very grateful for the continued support even in really hard economic times.”