Coats for Kids organizer 'shocked' by increase in need

The Families East Resource Centre in Souris, P.E.I., has seen a major increase in demand this fall for their Coats for Kids program.

The number of requests from families has gone up by 40 per cent.

The organization uses monetary donations to shop for new and quality second-hand coats and boots.

Barbara Lundrigan, executive director of Families East, said the organizationusually has enough money from community fundraisers to cover the costs, but twice this year it has had to ask for more donations.

'More and more calls'

"We put it out there that we're doing the coats program again and ask people to let us know by the first of November what they need sizes and that sort of thing. But we kept getting more and more calls. We were kind of shocked by the numbers and how big the need is."

Seventy families have been helped this year, up from 50 in 2018.

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