It's a household staple that many take for granted – but 115,000 rolls of donated toilet paper will make a world of difference for families in need, organizers of an annual fundraiser say.
"TP The Town" set up booths at grocery stores around Greater Victoria over the weekend, encouraging shoppers to buy and donate discounted toilet paper.
On Monday, the Mustard Seed food bank collected the massive amount of toilet paper that it will donate to families who often must choose between basic necessities.
"Folks who utilize the services of a food bank, often times it comes down to the end of the month or down to the last little bit of budget that they have," said Shaun Cerisano, co-founder of the event. "When they go to the grocery store, they often have to make that choice between food and toilet paper and as you can imagine, they're going to choose food."
Cerisano said the event eliminates that choice by providing people free toilet paper so they can focus their money on feeding their families.
Mustard Seed it's also gearing up for the Christmas season by assembling its annual food hampers, and is looking to the public for donations.
"We're looking for turkeys. We have about 500 Christmas hampers that we fill, and turkeys are expensive, but it's a nice blessing to give to a family a nice Christmas dinner," said Janine Boice of Mustard Seed.
To make the holidays even more special for children in need, Boice said the organization is looking for toys.
"Each food hamper that we do during this season, we like to provide a toy to that child. So if you are shopping and you want to pick up an extra toy, please do so and drop it off at our Queens branch," she said. "Toys, turkeys, basic items that you would need at a Christmas dinner would all be helpful this time of year."
Mustard Seed said it's also accepting donations of grocery store gift cards that can used to buy turkeys closer to Christmas.
The food bank said it sees about 5,000 people per month, and around 1,000 of them are children.
