(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

nov. 17-23

Tim’s Holiday Smile Cookies to again benefit The Lending Cupboard

Nov 14, 2025 | 11:29 AM

For a third year, Red Deer’s The Lending Cupboard will benefit from the sale of Holiday Smile Cookies at local Tim Horton’s locations.

The cookies are on sale Nov. 17-23 and go for $2 each, plus tax.

Half of proceeds go to The Lending Cupboard (or other non-profits in other municipalities), while half goes to Tim Hortons Foundation Camps.

Lori Shatto, executive director at The Lending Cupboard, says her organization, which lends out medical equipment for free, processed items 40,000 times in their 2024/25 fiscal year.

Processed means an item either went out, came back in, got recycled, or was donated.

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That also meant serving close to 20,000 people, and both of those figures are up from the year previous.

“The dollars we’ll receive from this will be huge. They help us purchase equipment, and make sure we can keep our hours expanded, which this year were Monday to Friday from 9-4:30. They help with staffing costs, equipment repair, and cleaning,” Shatto says.

“One thing we don’t often talk about is the delivery services we have. Our van is out five days a week and that service is seeing huge increases in demand. It means folks are aging in place and don’t have transportation to pick up an item, and it means we’re getting the word out to folks that we are around and that this is a service we provide.”

Shatto says community partners like the local hip and knee clinic make sure to inform patients of The Lending Cupboard, while others in rural areas really focus on making sure people know about it.

The Lending Cupboard is always accepting donations, she adds, as long as it is gently used. They’ll also accept monetary donations.

Shatto says they’re always doing their utmost to ensure they are good stewards of the money they receive. That includes the money they get from the provincial government, which covers about 25 per cent of their yearly operational budget, plus what they receive from community sponsors and grants.

Smile Cookies beneficiaries elsewhere around central Alberta:

Sylvan Lake – École Steffie Woima School

Penhold – Penhold Elementary School

Blackfalds – Blackfalds Optimist Club

Lacombe – Lacombe Family and Community Support Services

Ponoka/Rimbey – Ponoka County Regional Fire Services

Stettler – Stettler Community Hamper Society

Innisfail/Bowden – Innisfail Food Bank

Olds -The Men’s Shed of Olds

Didsbury – Bethany Care Foundation

Rocky Mountain House – Ecole Rocky Elementary School

Sundre – Greenwood Neighbourhood Place

More about the Smile Cookies campaign is here.