Often they gather donations for the purpose, then use the money to buy supplies such as socks, granola bars, water bottles, Tim Hortons gift cards, etc. They assemble them into packages that are redistributed to worshippers who, in turn, give them to homeless people and panhandlers. I discovered these last fall and wore them while car panning through all but the very coldest days of the winter. The vast majority of these packages contain water bottles. They sell refillable water bottles for as little as a dollar each (and cheap thermal mugs, too!)

Source: thestar November 17, 2019 12:00 UTC