Article/Video by CTV News Northern Ontario

The Gathering Place has been serving North Bay “food and comfort” for years, but this pandemic has been costly.

“It’s a cyclical time of the year. We went through some pretty dry times in the summer and into the fall and now, the donations have started to pick up,” said executive director Dennis Chippa.

It’s welcome news for the soup kitchen which has spent thousands of dollars on extra paper products since the pandemic hit.

It was tough at first, Chippa said, but he knows people understandably had to look after their own loved ones.

“Now they’re loosening, now we’re open a bit more, now we’re out and we’re out and about more. I think more charities are seeing people say ‘I think we should really give back more,'” he tells CTV News.

According to Canada Helps, The Gathering Place isn’t alone on this front.

More Canadians made multiple donations, monthly giving is on the rise and younger donors are starting to emerge.

But it said there’s still a lot that has to be done.

“We did have that tremendous increase, that tremendous response that happened in the first year of the pandemic and Canadians have been able to go further and increase giving beyond those levels,” said Canada Helps Vice-President Jacob O’Connor.

There’s a real increase in demand for services. The Sudbury Women’s Centre said it’s seeing it but also is seeing people drift to online donations.

“It’s easier, as in you’re able to do it when you have the ability to with a credit card but it’s also the time of the year, where people are feeling more generous to help with some basic needs for clients,” said executive director Giulia Carpenter.