A longstanding community tradition in Sudbury was continued Saturday when members of the Club Richelieu Les Patriotes, along with their family members and friends, volunteered to create and deliver scores of Christmas food baskets to families in Greater Sudbury.
The day began in the gymnasium at École Ste-Marie in Azilda where the volunteer workers were busy packing up the food parcels; meat, vegetables, coffee, peanut butter, milk, butter, Tourtière, pasta, rice, cereal, dry goods, canned foods. The list went on.
"This is something that is done every year so that families have food at Christmas, so they could celebrate Christmas with their family and have the opportunity to share a good meal with their family members," said Richelieu spokesperson Paul de la Riva.
"Richelieu has been doing this for over 35 years. At first, it may have been smaller amounts but for the last dozen years or so we've been doing this for 110 to 140 family baskets per year," he said.
He said the food baskets are adjusted to fit the needs of each family. He said large families obviously get larger food baskets and in many cases, with foods to meet specific needs. He said the overall cost of the Christmas food project is roughly $30,000 and he thanked the community for supporting Club Richelieu Les Patriotes fundraising throughout the year.
Richelieu president Régent Dupuis acknowledged that the Christmas food baskets have been part of the social and cultural landscape in Sudbury over the years.
"Well, that's our objective, you know, as Richelieu. What we do obviously as Francophones we want to be able to help out in the community," said Dupuis.
"Our intent is to be of service to our community, and help the kids. The Christmas baskets are one way that we directly help the families and the kids in the community," he said.
Once the food baskets were completed, Richelieu members and friends took part in the next step of the project which was to deliver the groceries to the families in need.
Dupuis added that the response in the community has always been positive
"Oh it's tremendously positive feedback. You know that's why we have more than 50 volunteers here today, because the people appreciate doing it. . And when they deliver the food, they're so well received. The families really appreciate it. And so people feel appreciated by giving their time like this. And so they just want to continue and they come back every year,” he said.
Dupuis said Richelieu supports many community projects in Sudbury but it seems the Christmas basket project is one that gives members the most satisfaction in terms of helping people.
"We have been doing it for 35 years. So something you've been doing for 35 years, that means for our members, it's one of our priorities. We fundraise during the year to provide donations to all different organizations. But this is one that has been repeated for 35 consecutive years," said Dupuis.
Len Gillis is a reporter at Sudbury.com .
