Kits help homeless survive winter

Kits help homeless survive winter. An assembly line of volunteers works on the 13th annual Project Winter Survival at The Bargains Group’s Caledonia Road site on Saturday. The winter care packages for the homeless contained more than 30 items including a sleeping bag, winter clothing, personal care items and food. Photo/NANCY PAIVA

Project Winter Survival distributed more than $500,000 worth of essential supplies through frontline agencies Saturday, Jan. 21 to help those without shelter survive winter.

Project Winter Survival, run by The Bargains Group Ltd. on Caledonia Road, collected $512,000 worth of winter staples and dispensed 3,100 kits valued at $165 each for 187 frontline agencies to distribute.

Each kit contains 35 items including toques, gloves and scarves, basic hygiene products and sleeping bags, a hard-to-find item that The Bargains Group raised $85,000 to purchase.

For the past 12 years, Project Winter Survival and its team of volunteers and donors have assembled and distributed more than 12,000 kits.

Winter survival kits are allocated to 100 frontline agencies, such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, local shelters and drop-in programs in the Greater Toronto Area, which in turn distribute kits to the most vulnerable people living on the streets.

For information, visit www.projectwintersurvival.org

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