A record-breaking year of proceeds raised from the 2025 Sleighing Hunger charity concert.
The S'Aints Christmas Concert held two live, sold-out performances over the weekend at the Chrysler Theatre at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts.
This year, $123,000 was raised to support food banks across Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent.
The funds will be distributed to the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association and Chatham Outreach for Hunger to provide essential food support throughout the holidays and into 2026.
Brenda LeClair, Executive Director of Chatham Outreach for Hunger, says this donation will make a huge difference as the need grows in Chatham.
"In the last two years we've seen a 40 per cent increase in people accessing our services... many, many are children, and a lot of families registering in the food bank for the first time... families who never thought they'd need to be in that situation. So, this support is going to go a long way in ensuring that we can continue to meet that need."
June Muir, CEO of UHC Hub of Opportunities and President of the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association, says there were over 235,000 visits to local food banks in 2024.
"70,000 visits were children, and these numbers are increasing. So, that was last year's number - 2024. From 2023 to 2024, there was an 11 per cent increase."
Muir says this funding will help to fill more food hampers for families in need.
"Something like this really helps us with food insecurity, and we're going to be able to put that money to food items that we normally don't get donated. So, come January and February when donations are down, this is really going to help us. This is a lot of money, and we're going to be able to buy a lot of product with it."
Muir says the UHC hangs out 300 food hampers twice a month that are filled with milk, eggs, meats, and other items.
She says each hamper is 50 lbs, and the UHC prices per pound to $3.52 - meaning each hamper costs approximately $176.
For 15 years, the S'Aints have been rocking the season with purpose, raising more than $700,000.
Last year, $115,000 was raised through the concert.