Feed Nova Scotia has announced the end of its 35-year-old Christmas registry program and the creation of a new fund it says will benefit more people throughout the province.
The charitable organization supporting 140 food banks, meal programs, and shelters throughout Nova Scotia made the announcement in a media release Monday.
In an interview Monday afternoon, the organization’s executive director Nick Jennery said the Christmas program was both unsustainable and inequitable. He said costs to administer the program had “ballooned” in recent years, hitting a high of $440,000 just for the 2023 holiday season.
For the past two years, Jennery said it took seven full-time contract staff to run the Christmas program for three straight months.
“It’s a wonderful program and it does great work, but it takes three times the amount of effort to pull together a Christmas hamper than it does to get fresh fruits and vegetables out the door,” Jennery explained.