Community Christmas Dinners gathering donations for fifth year running

By Emily Stewart

In its fifth year, the group behind the community Christmas dinners is seeking support from St. Marys residents to ensure everyone who wants a holiday dinner receives one.

Rachael Roberts O’Neill and a group of friends will be providing Christmas dinners for individuals and families on Christmas Eve. The group is seeking financial donations to later buy ingredients for the holiday dinners and toys for the children. Roberts O’Neill and her friends are also looking for turkey donations.

“They used to donate money, but now it’s a mix between turkey and money, and we definitely need both,” said Roberts O’Neill. “We still like to give the kids who we deliver meals to; we give the kids toys as well, so we need cash donations to buy the toys.”

The Christmas meals are dropped off on Christmas Eve so they can be reheated and enjoyed by the recipients at any time. The Creamery makes the meals and Roberts O’Neill and her friends also get turkey donations from Country Roots Fresh Market and other food from Joe’s Diner and Delmar Food Outlet.

The group is looking to provide Christmas dinners to around 120 people or more. Most of those receiving the community Christmas dinners are those who cannot afford one themselves. Christmas dinners have also been delivered to parents in St. Marys on behalf of their children who moved away and can’t make it down for the holidays, as well as those who haven’t had a holiday meal since losing their spouse or are otherwise going to be alone.

“To me, I could not fathom not having a Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, so it’s just giving them a little bit of comfort, like giving people comfort or if you’re by yourself and you’re probably not going to cut the turkey for one on Christmas Eve, so it’s important that we look after those people as well,” Roberts O’Neill said.

Roberts O’Neill has been organizing this initiative for the past five years and says it keeps growing year after year, with lots of support from a generous community.

“We found that the community, just like last year and the years previous, have helped tremendously in raising the funds and what we need to make it successful,” she said.

Anyone interested in receiving a Christmas dinner can email rachjoneill@gmail.com; financial donations by way of e-transfer can also be sent to that email address.