By Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Taber joining other communities, including Lethbridge, for Coldest Night of the Year

Feb 19, 2018 | 7:44 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The hungry of Taber and area will benefit from this year’s Coldest Night of the Year event.

The national charity walk to support the less privileged is in its seventh year in Lethbridge, where proceeds go to Streets Alive Mission. But in Taber it’s the first year of the event, to benefit the Taber Food Bank Society.

Event director Matilda van Huizen said the food bank was approached by the national organization behind Coldest Night of the Year about taking part, and it’s starting to pick up steam with approximately one week to go. Nearly 50 walkers were signed up as of Friday, Feb. 16.

“Our goal is to try to raise $20,000 and we’re over 30 per cent of the way there, so we’re quite happy with that,” van Huizen told Lethbridge News Now. “At this point we are blessed with whatever we can receive from the community. We have businesses, we have individuals, we have churches, we have groups. They always seem to come together and help us out.”

In Lethbridge, Coldest Night of the Year is one of four major fundraisers for Streets Alive, which hopes to raise $50,000 from an expected 200 walkers. Associate director of philanthropy Marie McLennan said the funds will help key programs that it provides throughout the year, including a clothing bank, feeding program, trustee program, and workforce program.

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She said the 5 or 10 km walk speaks directly to the people served by the organization.

“People can come out and be cool in the cold for an hour, and it just gives them a taste of what it must be like for the bulk of our clients who spend 24 hours a day out in the elements,” she said. And this winter is one that has hit people without homes especially hard.

“We see people coming in here every day that are cold to the point where they can’t remember what warm feels like. And that’s dangerous. It’s not just about frostbite. We’ve been seeing a lot of that. We’ve been soaking a lot of people’s feet around here,” McLennan explained. “But even when it’s -10 and all the rest of us go, ‘oh, it’s T-shirt weather, it’s -10,’ for our people, -10 is cold. When you spend 24 hours in -10, you are cold to the point where you’re not sure you’ll ever be warm.”

Van Huizen said the Taber Food Bank helped 149 families in January, including 234 adults and 123 kids. The organization helps not only the less privileged within town but the surrounding area as well. She said rising bills lead to an increase in people coming in during the winter. They also see higher numbers at times in the summer, as migrant farm workers move to the area. But a community garden helps with those needs.

Funds raised by Coldest Night of the Year will help buy fresh fruit for the food hampers, and to defray the cost of butchering.

“We have a lot of farmers in this area who are willingly donating beef or a hog to us, but we still have to pay the butchering cost so that we can the fresh meat into our hampers. That was quite a significant cost for us last year.”

Coldest Night of the Year will be held across Canada Feb. 24. People can find out more and learn how to take part in the Lethbridge event at cnoy.org/lethbridge, or the Taber walk at cnoy.org/taber.