Saskatchewan Gateway Parish Peach Fundraiser back again this year
July 21, 2025, 1:14 pm
Nicole Taylor
The Saskatchewan Gateway Anglican Parish has had a lot of success with its peach fundraiser over the years.
It had to be cancelled last year because of a lack of peaches, but the fundraiser is back this year.
The idea to start the annual peach fundraiser came back in 2018 when former minister at St. Albans Anglican Church, Rev. Trish McCarthy suggested the idea.
“Trish was the one who thought we should do it, and we finally ‘said okay let’s try it,” said Yvonne Down, Treasurer of St. Albans.
“Trish had the experience of doing it in Regina and it was good.” Down says she believes the fundraiser has become so popular because the product is good and the fundraiser is unique.
“It was something new when it stared. I think it is a combination of people liking the peaches and wanting to support the church. Each 20 pound box is $55, and I think that’s the biggest part of it, the price is reasonable.
“Every year people ask, ‘are you going to do peaches again?’, some people even want me to do this fundraiser for strawberries and apples. It just seems easier selling a case of peaches, not everybody would be buying cases of strawberries. It’s popular in the city but I don’t think it would be as popular here. They also have a strawberry festival in the city along with the strawberry sales.”
The fundraiser has grown over the years. In 2018 the church sold 285 cases of peaches. That has grown over the years and has sold as many as 860 cases in one year.
The peaches come from the Okanagan valley in BC. The fundraiser was cancelled last year after a terrible year for the Orchards because of the fires in British Columbia.
“Between the cold spell and weather, the trees just weren’t flowering.” said Down.
Down says that people travel from all over the area to pick up peaches from the fundraiser.
“There is a lot of out of town people that buy the peaches. A lady from Melita came and bought about 25-30 cases of peaches. There are people all the way from Assiniboia that buy cases. People have come from North of Regina, they drove through Lumsden, when they also had a peach fundraiser, just to get ours. People from other communities have reached out asking how we do it.”
Down says that the money raised from the fundraiser is used to pay the chuch building’s power, electricity, and other expenses that come with running the church. “Last year, one our power bills was over $800, and we also have to send money to the diocese. Without the church hall, which is now rented to the Moosomin Visual Arts Centre, this is really all we can do for a fundraiser. We can’t do pancake suppers or rummage sales,” said Down.
Over the last six years, this fundraiser has sold about $160,000 worth of peaches and netted more than $40,000 for the church.
“It gets pretty hectic, but I enjoy doing it,” said Down, “We have volunteers at our church that show up to help, and we really appreciate it.”
The deadline to order peaches is August 13. The peaches will be available for pickup August 23, 1-3 pm at St. Albans in Moosomin and St. Thomas Church in Rocanville.
You can check for updates on their website, by visiting saskgateway.ca.
