'A community by choice': Al Ritchie Community Association seeking donations

The annual Coats for Kids distribution event kicked off Nov. 9, 2024. (Robert Lothian/CTV News Windsor(

For many outreach groups, winter can be a particularly difficult season when it comes to keeping up with the demand. It’s a challenge the Al Ritchie Community Association is facing – as it works to keep the community warm and fed during the colder months.

"Since this last August, our financial situation has just gotten tighter and tighter... we have people coming up to our doors every single day wanting to have extra services. So, whether that's food or clothing, those numbers seem to be blowing up over the course of the last three years,” explained Denis Simard, executive director for the Al Richie Community Association.

“We've gone from about serving 50 people a month to about 5000 people."

Simard and the team at the Al Ritchie Community Association work to provide clothing, food, and other necessities to those in need.

Lately, the need for cold weather clothing and food is growing.

"We have about 50 percent of the people that we serve that are completely homeless or living on the street, and we have other new Canadians who just can't afford right now to go buy that $100 coat or anything like that,” Simard noted.

"A lot of our clients are coming in who just don't have access to anything. A lot are new Canadians who didn't really imagine that this is how cold Canada gets."

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Simard added that during the colder months, it can be an additional challenge for those in need to get to the community centre.

Donations of all kinds are accepted by the Al Ritchie Community Association, including monetary contributions.

For those looking to help, some needed items include:

• Non-perishable food items (canned goods, peanut butter, etc.)
• Diapers & baby formula
• Winter coats, mittens, hats & scarves
• Children's clothing

It isn't just the Al Ritchie team feeling the affects of slowed donations. According to the Fraser Institute, outreach organizations across the country are seeing less donations.

"Charitable giving has actually reached a 20 year low in Canada. So, looking at the data for 2022, which is the latest year of available data, we say 17.1 percent of Canadian tax filers donating to charity," Grady Munro, policy analyst for the Fraser Institute said.

This data is annually collected and organized into a ”generosity index,” which Munro explained – has been steadily declining in recent years.

The generosity index is measured by both the number of tax-filing Canadians who donate to charity, and the total share of their income which is donated.

Saskatchewan has placed fifth on this scale, with just over 16 percent of tax filing residents donating to charity.

While it is a difficult time for countless outreach organizations, Simard is optimistic that Al Ritchie will pull through.

"We're neighbors by choice. We're a community by choice. We choose to take care of one another and so even though sometimes there's a lot of people out there that are trying to contribute, it oftentimes goes to the same group, sort of like the food banks,” Simard explained.

“So, there's nothing against all the hard work that they're doing, but...the small little associations like us sometimes get lost in the shuffle."

Anyone looking to help out, can drop off donations at the Al Ritchie Community Centre, or make a monetary donation online.