The Salvation Army will spend almost $100,000 to put food on the tables of 1,400 families in need this Christmas.But the big push is on to find toys for nearly 1,000 children.The impact of unemployment has landed heavily on the Army’s doorstep as it sees more single families and more children in need of help.While the demand for assistance remains high, Divisional Commander Major Shawn Critch said there has been a shift in trends this year.“We are seeing more single family individuals with a higher number of children. On the surface I would say unemployment is one of the leading factors that continues to be a challenge for the community.“We’ve seen that challenge on a daily basis in our Community and Family Service Programme. Up until the end of July we had about 400 new cases come through to Lynn Gordon and the team.“That coupled with the number of people we assisted last year led us to predict the numbers for Christmas would be higher than last year. But we might end up being a little bit lower,” he said.“The big thing I’m concerned about so far this year is the toy drive. I know it’s still early in the Christmas season but we’re certainly a long, long way from where we need to be with sponsorship for toys and things of that nature.“At the end of the day we may need to buy more toys than we’ve had to buy in the past, usually toys have been donated through various means.”For the first time this year, Bermuda CableVision has signed on as a corporate sponsor to assist. “We’re very excited about that and other smaller partnerships and we’re hopeful they will sign on again next year,” said Major Critch.“And of course there are those who support us in a very quiet way for any number of reasons to give back to the community.”While grateful for the discounts offered by food distributors, he stressed that the provisions handed out each Christmas are not free. On November 15 the Army launched its main fundraising appeal.The annual Red Shield Appeal facilitates costs for the annual Christmas Programme and services run by the Army throughout the year. The target this year is $500,000, to date, $200,000 has been raised.But Major Critch said: “I’ve got no reason to be discouraged, things always seem to come together; although the economic climate is rough this year.”“We have some corporate partners who may have partnered in the past who cannot give this year, but they have offered to do something different instead. There is also an increasing need for support of individual families to pay utility bills within the community.”Looking ahead to the New Year he said he “doesn’t see it being a year that’s going to show a lot of improvement”.“Hopefully it’s not going to be any more challenging than it has been for the last two years for us and the community as a whole,” he said.“I’m hoping that at least some of the reality we’re facing in the community and within the country as a whole is going to start to stabilise and the economy will turn around. Perhaps things will start to progress back to where they should have been,” he said.With several programmes being run by several entities Islandwide to assist families during the holiday season, donations have been stretched across the board.“There is the whole issue of donor fatigue, it takes its toll because there’s only so much to go around to all the various helping agencies,” said Major Critch. “I think it’s important to avoid as much duplication as possible.“That’s why I think its so important for the collaboration and partnerships to be evident within the community because its not getting any easier. The need is getting greater, even from a corporate perspective, corporations want to see more collaboration to avoid some of the duplication that might not necessarily need to exist.”But for now the main priority will be to get the help needed to as many families as possible. When asked for his main appeal to the community to meet the demand Major Critch referred back to the needs of children.“Don’t wait until the last minute, our distribution day for families is December 20 because of the way Christmas falls this year. If you’re going to make a toy donation to the work of the Salvation Army to help an estimated 900 to 1,000 children, we need those toys in by December 15 at the latest.“For the monetary gifts, those could be made any time of the year but certainly at Christmas it’s critical for us that we meet our objective. It represents about 45 percent of our annual campaign, so if we fall significantly short with this campaign we fall significantly short for the year period.“But I’m hoping that it will all come together,” he said.Toy donations may be dropped off at HSBC on Front Street, the Rosebank branch of Butterfield Bank, Bermuda Commercial Bank and Bermuda CableVision in the Washington Mall.