A good crowd was on hand for the 48th annual Salem Presbyterian Church annual Christmas Day Dinner.
Pastor Denise Burke says there is one goal of the program.
“We wanted to bring everybody together so that they’re not alone,” Burke said. “If they were going to be by themselves, they don’t have to be. We’ll just offer them an opportunity to be with others.”
An estimated 60 attended the dinner this year with 15 to 20 volunteers helping to prepare and serve. Church Elder Amy Telford says some people not associated with the church show up to help in addition to those from the church resulting in a pretty crowded kitchen. She reports that the crowd is never the same.
“With the weather, sometimes we have a lot of people that are trapped here if the weather’s bad and they’re in hotels,” Telford said. “We’ve seen some years that there are a lot of out-of-towners who don’t have anywhere to go that come. It’s different every year.”
Telford notes that while most of the food is made in advance and heated up for the meal, some is prepared that morning including the mashed potatoes. Church member Joe Black has been in charge of that every year since the beginning.
Photo by Jordan Smith.
Photo by Jordan Smith.
