Young families get extra help with free spring market

Thanks to the generosity of people in the Southeast, a free spring market is being planned for young families in the area. 

Jo-Anne Dalton is the Executive Director at the Steinbach Family Resource Centre. She says they have collected a lot of donations that will help many families in the region. 

“We have an abundance of donated items from when the seasons change because people are cleaning out their homes and changing over their kids' clothes and equipment needs and all of those kinds of things for small children,” she explains. 

This abundance of donated items means the centre can give everything to families who can make use of them, at no cost. 

“What that means is we open up our Center for a few hours, we put everything out on display that is for the season that we've been storing all winter long and then families in need can come and take whatever they need.” 

Most of the donated items are for children under the age of 6 years, but Dalton says they sometimes receive things for older family members. 

It’s never too late to donate items. 

Dalton says kids' footwear is always needed, like rubber boots and splash pants for spring, and then running shoes for summer. 

“Especially for those toddler ages, for about 3- and 4-year-olds, those size 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,1, and 2 are always in high, high demand. And then long pants for kids as well, and jackets for sure.” 

The Free Spring Market will happen on Friday, April 26th from 1:00-3:00 at Steinbach Family Resource Centre. 

“We do lock our doors for about half an hour before that,” Dalton says. “We end up usually having a bit of a lineup because families want to get that first chance to go through and see what we have, and then we have that two-hour block where families can wander through the building. We'll do it in the summer again, and it’ll be outdoors. This one, we're never sure what the weather is going to do in the spring, so we'll have it inside the center.” 

When summer rolls around, Dalton says they will have special programming. 

“A lot of our toddler groups and our preschool group move into our park, which is really exciting. A beautiful new shade structure out there this year, which will be great for programming. A lot more people can use it. And then we're also in the midst of hiring our summer team for all our events, festivals, fairs and running some of our school age programs.” 

Dalton says they are constantly looking at ways to provide more resources to a growing number of families. 

“If we look at our numbers, from 2019-2020, the year before the pandemic, we served about 350 families that year. This past year, we've served 750 and half of those families came to our center this year for the first time. If that kind of growth continues, it's very, very difficult to meet that demand. So, we're always looking at ways that we can increase our resource distribution. How can we offer more programs? We have to look at time of day and if we have to double up on programs. In the summer we can do that with our outdoor space but in the winter, it becomes more challenging and that's when people need to get out the most. 

-With files from Michelle Sawatzky, Dave Anthony.