With just over a week until the holidays the big push is on for local charities to collect donations in time for the holidays.  

At the Christmas Cheer warehouse a small army of volunteers spent Saturday sorting through hundreds of toys. The charity is well short of its $250,000 fundraising goal. So far, they’ve only risen just over $65,000.

 “Roughly 1750 applicants came in last year and we were around 1740 for the whole year,” said Ian Hocking.

The Barrie Food Bank has so far collected more than 60,000 pounds of food with a goal of collecting 180,000 pounds that will help serve its clients well into the new year. The food bank estimates they will help 2,800 people and nearly 600 households in December.

The Salvation Army is also experiencing a spike in demand while its Kettle campaign is approximately 40 per cent short of its $505,000 goal.