OLDS — On Christmas Day, the 41st Henry Sonnenberg Christmas dinner will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #105 from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.
This year, thanks to the tough economy, Linda Anderson of the legion, a co-ordinator and cook for the event, says organizers are expecting more people than ever, perhaps 450, up from about 400 last year.
They’ll be given the opportunity to eat a sit-down meal, get one to take out or have one delivered to their home. Doors are expected to open at 11 a.m.
The meal is named in honour of the late Henry Sonnenberg who owned and operated the Olds Bakery for more than 30 years. He passed away on July 29, 2017.
- RELATED: Christmas dinner founder passes away
Decades ago he began cooking and serving Christmas dinners for people who had no place else to go for a Christmas meal and celebration.
This year will be the eighth year that thelegion has partnered with the Lions Club of Olds to stage the event.
Anderson is impressed with how many volunteers have come forward to help out this year. She estimates 60 people have volunteered to help out so far.
Generally their job involves serving food, cleaning tables and doing the dishes.
Anderson is especially impressed with the fact that entire families are volunteering. She said they’ve had many volunteers before but “not as many kids.”
Those who’d like to have the Christmas dinner delivered to them or who want to order takeouts are asked to call Alan at 403-507-5204.
There will be plenty of food, including turkey, ham, potatoes, yams, carrots and two pies: apple and pumpkin.
“We have 400 pounds of turkey, 150 pounds of ham. We're doing 120 pounds of potatoes, yams, carrots,” Anderson said.
Anderson cooks with help from her sister Shayne Wipf.
She doesn’t anticipate a lot of leftover food this year due to the number of people expected to partake in it. However, if there are leftovers, people will be given lots of opportunity to take some home with them.
Although inflation is expected to be a key factor in this year’s turnout, Anderson has also heard that there may be several college students on campus over the holidays, so she's anticipating some of them may show up for the meal.
Organizers are ready for a big crowd.
“We switched everything over last year and we have an area where we just do takeout so that the people aren't coming in the same line as the people sitting in and that's made things so much smoother,” she said.
Anderson agreed it would be nice to see a mix of generations on hand for the meal.
"It will show the college students what the community will do for them: help, offer them a free meal or whatever.”
