Increased demand at Moncton Headstart’s Toyland campaign

In the basement of Moncton Headstart is a glimpse of Christmas, featuring tables of new toys and the promise of something to unwrap on Christmas morning.

However, this year shows a different situation across the Greater Moncton area.

“Demand is way up. Like way up,” said executive director, Caroline Donelle.

“We’re maxed out right now at 650 families, multiply that by three children per household, about 1,800 children are on that list.”

Working alongside Santa to help deliver toys this Christmas, Toyland provides low-income families with the opportunity to pick out items for their children.

Donelle says since opening this year, around 800 children have already benefited from the campaign.

“They get a couple of gifts for their children plus books for everybody, more knitted goods for everybody, some stocking stuffers so they actually get to walk out with a little bit of Christmas cheer,” she said.

Caroline Donelle, executive director of Moncton Headstart. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)Families are also given a puzzle or board game so that they have an activity that they can do together over the holidays.

However, supplies are running low and the toys need to be replenished daily.

Donelle says if they run out of toys, Headstart will be forced to cancel the existing appointments.

“We can’t give out what we don’t have and we made that really clear at the beginning when we were worried about supply that we do hope that we can make every child’s Christmas a little better, but it depends on what comes in and what we’re able to do,” she said.

Looking to help fill the shelves, 11 Subway restaurants from Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe launched a new initiative that encouraged customers to bring in a new, unwrapped toys on December 12 to receive a free six-inch sandwich.

“We understand times are tough right now, just like everybody else, we feel the pinch everywhere as local business owners and living in the community, we see it and we hope that it’s our way of trying to give back,” said local restaurant owner, Jeff Leger.

Moncton, N.B., Subway owner Jeff Leger is pictured. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)

“If you’re going to spend money on a sandwich, take that and put it towards purchasing toys and we’ll provide you with a sandwich.”

Leger says he got the idea after reading that Moncton Headstart lost a sponsor this year and he wanted to make sure that they still had enough supplies to meet this year’s demand.

After contacting the other Subways in the area, he said it was a “resounding yes” for every one of them to join in.

“I grew up with a single mother family. Christmas was lean sometimes and it’s one of those things where you just want to have something fun at Christmas. You want a toy and you want to have memorable moments, so it’s our way of trying to help provide that for youth that need it,” he said.

The hope is that this year can help build a relationship between Moncton Headstart and local Subway restaurants according to Leger.

“I think what happens is a lot of people think Subway is just corporate,” he said.

“We’re all local franchises. We all live in the neighbourhoods. We all have kids that go to school in the neighbourhood. We live in the areas where our Subways are so, of course, charities that are close in the community to us, we want to try to support where we can. It’s that support local and we’re local supporting local.”

To put it into perspective, Donelle says 100 toys would be gone within half a day and even with Christmas right around the corner, Moncton Headstart is still looking for donations.

“This year we’ve been chronically short on the teens, the adolescents through teenage years and we’re short with babies. So under two too, we’ve got a short supply,” she said.

Adding, “every year is always a challenge when it comes to providing charitable services to the public, particularly now in terms of COVID [which] really changed a lot for everybody, but this year we’re seeing a really really high demand and even though our appointments have been fully booked for over a week, we get calls all day long.”

New, unwrapped toys can be dropped off at Moncton Headstart during the week and monetary donations are also accepted both in person and online.

If there is any toys left over at the end of this year, Donelle says they will be saved to give the organization a jumpstart for Toyland 2024.

“There’s a reason why we do this. We know how important Toyland is to the community,” she said.

“Moncton Headstart’s been doing it for many many many years and again, because of the community were able to run this. If it wasn’t for the community this wouldn’t be happening.”

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