by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 19/97) - Capt. Karen Hoeft hates when business increases during the Christmas season.

And unfortunately, business is increasing.

Hoeft is director of community services for the Salvation Army, and Christmas is the time of year when the Army packages up food donated by institutions, residents and businesses for distribution in hampers to needy residents.

The mail strike slowed the Army's annual mailing, which reminds people to donate, and this year 300 families will need a hamper, which includes a turkey and trimmings and a quantity of fresh and non-perishable food. That is up 60 from last year.

"Christmas is extra for all of us, and when you have no extras to begin with, it's all the harder," she said this week.

The Army co-ordinates distribution of the hampers, but Hoeft says they can only give out as much as people give to them, and they are looking for more.

The hampers go out on Monday and Tuesday, and she is hoping people will drop off groceries so they can be given to needy families.

"We find people are quite generous at Christmas," she said.

In addition, the Lions Club and CJCD co-ordinate the giving of toys to needy children on Christmas Eve.

A growing proportion of people asking for hampers are not unemployed or otherwise out of work, she said. An increasing number, faced with the expensive rents and high cost of living in Yellowknife, simply can't provide the basics and a Christmas with the income from jobs they hold.

"There are those who have lost their jobs and single mothers but there are also a lot of the working poor, people who just can't make ends meet with the jobs that they have," she said.

"When Christmas comes along, it just adds that extra strain on things."