The Mustard Seed in Red Deer joined Canada for the Cold Night of the Year walk for homelessness, on Saturday, February 24th.

The event takes place across Canada and is held in order to raise funds for the Mustard Seed, an organization that provides food and sometimes even shelter to the homeless.

“The Coldest Night of the Year is a national homelessness awareness fundraiser. So today in Red Deer but also, it’s in another 132 communities right across Canada. We’re raising funds that go directly to the most vulnerable citizens in each of these communities, people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and working poor that are struggling to make ends meet,” said Byron Bradley, The Mustard Seed's Managing Director of Central Alberta.

Traditionally, participants have the choice of walking two, five or ten kilometres, but being that the weather was quite cold the walk was limited to two or five kilometres. Participants were treated to a chilli supper and a variety of hot drinks. 

Bradley noted that while homelessness in Red Deer area isn’t necessarily increasing by a large amount, there is a rising need for low-income housing and other resources which is becoming scarcely available.

“The needs are definitely growing in Red Deer. There’s a lack of affordable housing and we just lack resources overall in this zone because Red Deer provides a lot of support to a lot of people in this zone. People in Central Alberta come to Red Deer for support and it’s difficult for Red Deer to keep up with all the needs in Central Alberta.”

Needs, resources, and demands are thankfully not rising greatly in the Red Deer area and staying relatively stagnant, but there is always a need for more support and the Coldest Night of the Year helps with that. In total, the Coldest Night of the Year raised $18,866 of their goal of $20,000, but as more donations are still coming in it is expected that the Mustard Seed will soon meet its goal.

However, outside of the fundraiser, the Mustard Seed is always accepting volunteers and looking for a helping hand. Volunteers are needed to help cook suppers, build and deliver lunches for their school lunch program, and help with the emergency shelter.

For more information on the Red Deer Mustard Seed, click here.