Winnipeg Humane Society launches Christmas hampers as demand triples
Posted November 20, 2025 6:31 pm.
Last Updated November 20, 2025 9:54 pm.
The season of giving is upon us, and the Winnipeg Humane Society is stepping up for pet owners in need of support. After seeing a huge uptick in pet food bank users recently, the organization is starting up a Christmas hamper program.
Typically, the pet food bank sees around 80 clients per month, but in October it was over 300.
“Clearly that means the demand for the food bank is increasing,” said Kendra Galbraith, community outreach manager at winnipeg humane society. “Back in 2019 this was launched as an emergency pet food bank, it was supposed to be a one off if people need, but we’ve removed ‘emergency’, it’s now the pet food bank, and everyone accesses it once a month.”
To ease some of the pressures around the holidays, the Humane Society is putting together 50 dog and 50 cat hampers to hand out.
“We’ll be handing that out Dec.16th at the west end resource centre,” said Galbraith. “It’s just a great way to spend holiday cheer and the holidays are hard enough for people having to afford stuff for themselves, let alone their pets, so hopefully this can bring a smile and help out a bunch of families.”
“Last year we created and delivered just over 21,000,” said Tracy Dumka, program coordinader, christmas cheer board. “This year we’re thinking its probably going to look more like 22.”
The Humane Society is not the only one working hard for those in need this holiday season. Tracy Dumka with Christmas cheer board says the organization is doing what they can to keep up with a high demand for their Christmas hampers.
“We have ordered extra food in preparation for that, but I mean our food costs have one up 30 per cent over the last four years, so with the increased ordering of food, we’ve also had that increased cost with the food,” said Dumka.
Both organizations say they are heavily dependent on help from the public.
“We’re grassroots, we’re not funded by anybody, government or otherwise, so we are looking for donations as much as we possibly can to help us supplement for our hampers and toys for the kiddos,” said Dumka.
“Even if your dog, lets say you bought food and your dog isn’t interested in it anymore and it’s opened, bring it to us. We will happily re-package it and hand it out, so any donations are extremely helpful,” said Galbraith.
