Christmas Exchange

Description

Christmas Exchange is a non-religious charity established in 1915 to support families left behind when the men were overseas during the First World War. The Exchange continues to serve all Ottawa residents that are verifiably in a time of need, regardless of age, ethnicity, creed or culture, by providing food vouchers and hampers. The Exchange also processes referrals for the Salvation Army Toy Centre, and manages a centralized database to coordinate the seasonal giving for over 300 community organizations, such as schools, day cares, social service agencies, food banks and housing shelters. This database not only ensures that assistance is distributed evenly and fairly and that no one in need is left out, it has also saved the community close to $1 million in the past five years by identifying duplicates in the system. In 2006 the Exchange provided food assistance to 22,900 people in 8,380 families, including 10,502 children and 5,531 seniors. That is more people then would fill the Lynx Stadium twice over.