this holiday season

share the care

This holiday season, you can help bring joy and dignity to children and families right here in Centre Wellington. Through the Centre Wellington Food Bank’s Share the Care Annual Holiday Initiative, our community comes together to make the holidays special for kids who might otherwise go without.

The Share the Care Annual Holiday Initiative offers two meaningful ways to spread joy this season. Through the Angel Program, donors can sponsor a local family by providing gift cards for parents to purchase special gifts for their children. The Home the Gnome Program invites the community to donate gift cards at participating local businesses — our “Gnome Homes” — helping ensure every family has the opportunity to celebrate the holidays with dignity and joy.

In 2024, community donations through Share the Care helped 210 local children (ages newborn to 17) experience the magic of the holidays. With your support, we can brighten even more young lives this year.

Angel Program

sponsor a family this holiday season

By choosing to sponsor a family through the Angel Program, you’ll work directly with the Centre Wellington Food Bank team to learn about your sponsor family’s preferences. Our staff will guide you on the best way to support the children in your family, ensuring your contribution meets their specific needs.

Sponsors then purchase gift cards from stores chosen by the families, allowing parents to experience both the excitement and dignity of selecting the perfect gifts for their children.

Your generosity helps ensure that every child experiences the magic of the holiday season, creating joyful memories that last long after the holidays are over.

To learn more or sign up to sponsor a family, please contact Shannon Reaume at sharethecare@cwfoodbank.org (note: this is a new email address for the program).

Home the Gnome

Calling All Local Businesses!

Join the fun and host a Gnome this holiday season. By placing a Gnome display in your business, you’ll give our community more places to donate gift cards — helping bring joy to even more children and families in need.

current gnome homes:

• The Gorge Country Kitchen - Elora

• The Grand 101 - Fergus

• Fergus Family Chiropractic - Fergus

• Canadian Tire - Fergus

• Remedy's RX Pharmacy - Fergus

• Hairapy with Emma - Fergus

• Barrow Family Chiropractic - Belwood

• M&M Meats - Fergus

Donation period: November 5th – December 5th.

To learn more or sign up, please email sharethecare@cwfoodbank.org

Gift Card Ideas

give the gift of choice

When you donate gift cards, you give parents the joy of choosing special gifts for their children and help bring a sense of normalcy to the holidays.

Here are some of our top-requested locations :

Individual gift cards

• Walmart

• Giant Tiger and Canadian Tire

• Shoppers Drug Mart

• Brighten Up Toys and Magic Pebble Books

• McDonald’s and Tim Hortons

FAMILY GIFT CARDS

• Local Restaurants and Pizza Places

• Play with Clay

• Sportsplex Swimming Passes (youth/adult)

• Cineplex and Bowling

"About two years ago we started coming to the Centre Wellington Food Bank for a little help. It's a hard step to ask for help and even harder to take help from others. The food bank is different here, I've lived in a lot of places and have never seen the kindness, compassion and forward thinking that I do at our food bank. Their holiday programs are so amazing! When we were asked where we wanted gift cards for it was a huge difference in our Christmas. It meant the autonomy to choose our own gifts. We also asked for passes to swim as a family. With these passes and our amazing gift cards our Christmas was exactly what we wanted it to be. Gift cards are so helpful to create a distance between the stigma of needing help, and the benefits of having a choice. To the wonderful family who chose us, your gifts created happiness and gratitude for us and our children, isn't that what Christmastime is really about?! Thank you, to the food bank and to the families who can help and do!"

" My wife and I have two wonderful children, one with special needs. We would love to express our heartfelt gratitude and thanks to the Share the Care Programs, and all of the donors who take part in helping our little family, and others this special time of year. Because of you, we were able to give our amazing little kids a magical and wonderful Christmas. Their mother and I were blown away by the love, support, and generosity from the donors of the Angel program. We didn't have to worry about sacrificing our bills for presents, or putting good healthy food on the table for our kids. We could not have done it without you!"