Lower Mainland · Christmas 2026

One warm dinner. One local family. One Christmas they'll remember.

We provide the ingredients for a warm, complete Christmas dinner to struggling elementary school families across the Lower Mainland who are facing a hard Christmas. Families cook it at home, the way they like it. Schools know their families best, so we work through them, with dignity and care.

Donate Now How It Works

A suggested gift of $100 helps provide the ingredients for a warm, complete Christmas dinner for a local family.

A hand setting a bowl onto a set holiday dinner table

Your Impact

Help provide a warm Christmas dinner

Every dollar goes toward a frozen turkey and the fresh ingredients for a warm, complete Christmas dinner. Food is sourced through retail purchases, discounts and donated food, and Save-On-Foods assembles the packages at its stores. Nothing fancy. Just a full table over a family gathering at Christmas.

Give a Dinner

2026 Goal

Help Us Reach $10,000

100 families · 8 partner schools

$4,500 $10,000

Donate Now

Where We Work · 2026

Eight partner schools across the Lower Mainland

This Christmas we're working through our eight partner elementary schools to reach 100 local families. The schools know where the need is, and we make sure the ingredients for a warm, complete dinner get there.

8 Partner elementary schools

100 Local families we aim to reach

3 Cities: Richmond, Vancouver & Burnaby

10 Volunteers on the team

To protect the privacy of the families and communities we serve, we don't publish the names of our partner schools. If you're a school looking to partner with us, get in touch.

A family preparing a turkey dinner together in a home kitchen

A Real Christmas

We're Neighbours, We Care

Give a Turkey is local people raising money for families a few streets away. We work through eight partner elementary schools, and school staff are the only people who know which families take part. That's the whole model, and it's why the help lands where it's needed most.

We weren't going to do a dinner this year. Just wasn't in the cards. Then the school called and I still don't really know what to say about it. My kids had a Christmas.Mom of three, Lower Mainland

Shared anonymously, with permission.

Why This Matters

No family should have to skip Christmas dinner
because money is tight.

A complete Christmas dinner at home is one thing families should not have to worry about in an already hard season.

1 in 6

children in BC live below the poverty line. About 149,000 kids, many in classrooms in our own neighbourhoods.

First Call, 2025 BC Child Poverty Report Card (2023 data) ↗

2.5M

children in Canada now live in a household that struggles to afford food, up from 2.1 million the year before.

+400,000 in one year PROOF (U of T), StatCan data ↗

1 in 3

people using a food bank in Canada is a child.

Food Banks Canada, HungerCount 2025 ↗

Schools identify the families who take part. We raise the funds and coordinate the programme. Save-On-Foods assembles the packages at its stores, and families collect them and cook at home.

Want the research behind this? See the full picture on our impact page →

How It Works

From your gift to a family's table

Donating is simple. Here is exactly what happens after you give.

A sliced turkey dinner with side dishes on a table

An example of the dinner families prepare at home with the ingredients they collect.

You Donate

Give once or monthly. Your donation goes toward food for local families.

Schools Identify Families

Partner elementary schools know which families could use a hand, and they reach out privately. Only school staff know who takes part.

Save-On-Foods Assembles

Food is sourced through retail purchases, discounts and donated food. Save-On-Foods assembles the packages at its Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby stores.

Families Cook at Home

Families receive pickup instructions, collect their ingredients from a participating Save-On-Foods, and cook dinner at home.

A box of ingredients handed across a counter

Sourced locally. Assembled at Save-On-Foods.

Food is sourced through retail purchases, discounts and donated food, then assembled into packages at participating Save-On-Foods stores. Families collect them and cook at home, with no public recognition and no names shared.

Ways to Give

Ready to Make a Family's Christmas?

Your donation helps provide the ingredients for a Christmas dinner to a local family. Volunteer-run, with payment processing fees covered separately so your donation goes toward food.

Donate Now Volunteer or Partner With Us