Nine-year-old Jared Le Normand had a generous Christmas promptly followed by a January birthday, so his family decided to collect food for the Caledon Community Services' (CCS) food bank instead of having party guests bring a traditional present.

"They get so much at Christmas," said Jared's mother, Shannon. "We've been trying to teach them about the people who don't have what we have."

Jared's parents first had the idea to collect food in lieu of presents, but they then had to run it by the birthday boy, and giving up birthday gifts is not something every nine-year-old would countenance. "He actually accepted right away," said Shannon, who admits to being slightly surprised at the quick, positive response.

The family included on the invitations that guests should bring non-perishable food items for the food bank instead of toys for young Jared. "Everybody brought a good bag of food."

Shannon brought all four of her kids to the CCS offices to drop off the food on Monday, and executive director Monty Laskin stopped in to talk with the kids about their generous donation, explaining that it would be used to help needy children in the community. Each of the Le Normand children were allowed to choose a thank-you toy to take home with them and had the chance to see where all the food was stored.  One CCS staffer asked how long they thought the food there would last. The children, who thought that surely all that food would last a long time, were told that in reality it would only be enough for about a week.

The next Le Normand birthday is that of Matthew, who will turn seven in February. When asked whether they would try this again for his big day, Matthew piped up and said that he wanted to do it too. The family is hoping to make this a tradition, but will have to take it one birthday at a time.

The CCS Santa Fund is still $4,160 away from their goal, and while they won't be doing anymore campaigning because the season is over, they will still accept donations in  hopes of hitting their total.

"We're very close," said Fiona Ott, fundraising and communications manager. "When you think about how hard the GTA has been hit (by the recession), we're pretty impressed with the donations we've seen."

The Santa Fund got a boost when Walmart allowed CCS staffers to set up a booth in the store for a weekend and agreed to match all donations they received during that time. "It was actually a really great outreach," said Ott, explaining that CCS also offered information about their programs, like employment services, and even connected with a few new volunteers.

CCS is still accepting food, toys and especially cash donations. They can be made at the CCS offices, located in the Upper Courtyards in Bolton, or through their website at www.ccs4u.org. For more information call (905) 584-2300.