Dinner is served

Wondering what to do for Christmas dinner this year? Tired of cooking for hours only to have your holiday labors gobbled up in about 15 minutes? Maybe you have no family in the area coming to celebrate at your home. Perhaps you have even lost the spirit of the season and are experiencing the Christmas blues. Maybe you just deserve to have dinner served to you for being on Santa’s good list all year.
You may be one of the many who have lost your job and don’t know where you’ll find the money to buy your holiday dinner. Or you might just be one of those people who would like to visit with your neighbors, friends. Perhaps you’re just sick of all this holiday hubbub and want to eat out this year, but there won’t be many, if any, restaurants open at which to get your fill.
No worries.
Join the Community Christmas Dinner at First Baptist on Wayne Avenue in Waynesboro. They’ll be ready and waiting to serve you all the turkey, ham and fixin’s you can eat.
In its 11th year, the Community Christmas Dinner was originally started to help the needy, said Bill Poats, who with his wife, Bobbi, organized this year’s feast.
“It’s a joint venture between the church and the community and it’s open to all,” he said. “The Community Christmas Dinner is now designed for that.”
With the recent news that food banks in the area are low on supplies, it’s possible that this year, the dinner will serve more people than in recent years.
“The Salvation Army sent out more than 500 fliers to advertise the event,” Poats said. “And we have a big sign on the church lawn to let people know.”
The difficult part of serving a community is that one never knows just how many people will attend.
In a normal year, Poats says somewhere around 250-275 people come, many of whom are church members, and lots of families, with their children. This year, Poats has planned for about 300.
“With this economy, we could have more than the last few years, anywhere from 200-400,” said Poats. “We’ll do our best.”
Charles Salembier is one of the people who helps prepare the community dinner.
“The first year we did it, we all cooked turkeys at home, I remember,” Salembier said.
“There was this lady who came, and she asked me, ‘What do I have to do? Do I have to join this church to get something to eat?’ I told her the only thing she had to do was eat as much as she could.
“There was this other lady who told me after she was done eating that she thought we were the “rich” church. But that she was surprised because we were just like her,” he said.
Salembier goes on to say that although there are some congregants who are well-off, some are not. He says that it has been the little donations of $10 here and $10 there that has enabled First Baptist to be able to share their good will.
“It has been 200 years of people who built it to what it is today. There are lots of people pulling together to make it happen. And the dinner is the same way too,” Salembier said.
So what’s on the menu? Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and cake. All the desserts are homebaked and donated by congregants.
“And there’s tons of desserts,” Salembier said.
“You know, a lot of people come, not because they don’t have food, but because they want to. They don’t want to spend the holiday alone,” said Salembier.
Along with dinner there were be entertainment. Laura Hamp, wife of Waynesboro City Manager Mike Hamp, will play the piano and there will be children’s activities.
Dinner begins promptly at 11 a.m. and runs until 1:30 p.m.
“And take a poinsettia home when you’re finished,” Poats said.
“Come eat a great meal and you don’t have to do dishes or clean up. It’s free, there’s no pressure,” Salembier said.
“It’s so nice to have someone to share dinner with.”