To Stratford With Love returns for 37th year

You’re invited to the 37th annual To Stratford With Love community dinner on Dec. 13 starting at 5:30 p.m. Reserve a ticket and come enjoy the holiday season with the Stratford community free of charge.

One of the most-anticipated Stratford holiday traditions is returning for its 37th year on Dec. 13 at the Stratford Rotary Complex.

To Stratford With Love, a free roast-beef dinner held each year to bring the community together around Christmas time, will see upwards of 600 diners and dozens of volunteers join together for a festive meal, to enjoy live entertainment by Upside of Maybe and the Stratford Concert Band and to celebrate the holiday season.

Though the number of tickets being handed out this year is less than previous iterations of the event – the dinner once served as many as 1,100 Stratford and area residents – organizers Richard and Ruth Kneider of Simple Dreams Ministries say the annual event will be everything so many have come to look forward to in the lead-up to Christmas.

“We’ve ordered (food) for more, but we have opted to go with 600 sittings this year,” Ruth Kneider said. “Last year, we did 800 and we had the overflow – and we still do have overflow should we get the 600 plus – but last year, the back portion of the hall was empty. We had volunteers standing around, not doing anything, and that’s hard. You can’t invent a job for them. So, we’re going with 600 this year and hoping that will be filled, so we’re putting all the effort into that.”

With more than 500 pounds of beef ordered – so much, in fact, the Kneiders may donate a big chunk of it to the St. Marys version of the dinner, To St. Marys With Love – and 12 extra tables, the Kneiders are confident they can accommodate more people should the event prove more popular this year. For now, however, they’re focused on making sure everything goes off without a hitch, just as it has for almost four decades.

“The coleslaw has been taken care of, the baked potatoes have been taken care of, vegetables and pies are all sorted out,” Richard Kneider said. “There’s stuff we still have to coordinate, but it always seems to come together. It’s just a matter of getting the restaurants cooking off all the beef.”

Since there isn’t a kitchen at the Stratford Rotary Complex, the kitchen staff at three local businesses – Mercer Hall, Black Angus Bakery & Catering and the Wild Hog Country Market – as well as the Local Community Food Centre, each cook and slice a portion of the beef, and Brad Rickert of Radio Cab delivers the cooked food by way of delivery van to the Rotary Complex.

For many, the To Stratford With Love holiday tradition isn’t about sitting down and enjoying a meal with the community, it’s about volunteering to serve that meal, or helping set up the Rotary complex hall before the event by hanging lights and decorations and putting up nearly a dozen Christmas trees, or even packing everything up and putting it all away for next year’s dinner after it’s all said and done.

This year, the Kneiders began recruiting volunteers on Nov. 12 and, within just two days, they had already found the 100 they need to serve the meal on Dec. 13. They’re still looking for volunteers to help with setup and tear-down before and after the event, so those who want to fulfill that holiday tradition can still help.

“We’re happy to have so many people who want to volunteer and just lighten the load,” Ruth Kneider said.

“We’ve had numerous people talk to us months ahead, wanting to know when (To Stratford With Love) is going to be, whether it’s volunteering or being there for the dinner,” added Richard Kneider. “And some of them have invited others who have never been to the dinner before. They say, ‘You really have to come to this thing.’”

For the Kneiders, the ability to organize this event with their daughters, their extended family and an army of volunteers each year means they get to share in the Christmas spirit, bring community together and help friends, neighbours and total strangers forget about their stresses and worries for one night while they enjoy a free holiday meal.

For more information on To Stratford With Love, to sign up as a volunteer or to reserve tickets, visit tostratfordwithlove.ca. Tickets can also be obtained at Stratford House of Blessing, the Salvation Army, Stratford City Hall and the Local Community Food Centre.