JAMESTOWN — The 21st Community Christmas Dinner is Sunday, Dec. 22, and organizers are planning for 800 meals, said Kris Meidinger, the kitchen coordinator for the event.
The dinner will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Victory Lutheran Church and is free to anyone. Meals will also be delivered to shut-ins, said the Rev. Shawn Bowman, senior pastor of the church. To guarantee meal delivery, call the church by 3 p.m. Friday at 251-1570.
“If you like the drive-up, call us and let us know you’re coming,” Bowman added. People wanting the drive-up on Sunday will need to come into the church, go through the line and get a meal to go, he said.
People dining at the church do not need to call before they come, Meidinger said.
The free meal includes turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade stuffing, green bean casserole, corn, cranberries and dessert, Meidinger said. Church members donate the desserts, which usually are pies, cookies or bars, she said.
Bowman said he started the meal in 2004, his first year as a new pastor at Victory Lutheran Church. There was a Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Concordia Lutheran Church but no community Christmas dinner. Victory Lutheran partnered with Capt. Tim Miller from the Salvation Army.
“We worked together and we used our church,” Bowman said. “He provided the food, I provided the manpower and we advertised and reached out. It grew, grew, grew.”
Victory Lutheran Church took over the meal in 2007 after Miller moved away from Jamestown.
The Kris and Jerry Meidinger family has always cooked the meal, Bowman noted.
“She (Kris) stepped up and just did a wonderful thing and they’ve been doing it ever since,” Bowman said. “But what we have found is, is that it takes a village to feed a community. You really need to have all hands on deck for Community Christmas Dinner because it’s just nonstop, people flowing into the church to receive a meal.”
Meidinger said it takes about 75 volunteers to help with the tasks needed for the dinner.
“A lot of our church people step up to help and that’s what makes it so efficient,” she said.
Other community members have also helped, Bowman said.
The meal is possible through donations from businesses, including food, and the church budgets funds to help with the costs as well, he said.
In 2023, the church served 550 dine-in and delivery/takeout meals, Meidinger said. Any leftover meals are donated to Daily Bread – Jamestown, Bowman said.
“From day one, when we started this, Christmas is such an exciting time of year for families to come together and celebrate, but Christmas can be the most lonely time of the year for people that have gone through hurts and pains and loss and so we wanted to do something that would create an opportunity to bring people into fellowship where they can be ministered to, encouraged, loved on,” Bowman said. “Just wanted it to be a welcoming atmosphere of kindness and goodness and love. And that is the real reason for the season. God’s invitation of love and kindness as he comes to us. And so we want to bring a community dinner like this to Jamestown, declaring that Jesus loves you. And we invite everyone to come. We don’t care if you come from a different church. We don’t care if you’re a college student or a senior citizen. Please come and just have a delicious meal and be blessed.
“And if anybody wants to come as a family and roll up their sleeves and volunteer and help, please call the church,” Bowman said. “We could always use more volunteers.”
Meals are packed for deliveries starting at 10:30 a.m., Meidinger said, and deliveries begin at 11 a.m. Dining in the church starts at 11 a.m., she said.
“If anyone wants to come and enjoy a worship service, we’ll have a wonderful, wonderful worship service at 9:30 a.m. that morning and then at 10:30 we send our people over to roll up their sleeves and go to work,” Bowman said.
People go through the food line as volunteers fill their plates during the Community Christmas Dinner in 2023 at Victory Lutheran Church in Jamestown.
Masaki Ova / The Jamestown Sun
Meidinger said her family — husband Jerry, children Josh, Jamie, Missy and Jory, daughter-in-law Amy and three grandchildren — each have specific jobs for the meal that have been honed through years of doing them.
“It’s gotten pretty easy because we’ve got a good routine down,” Meidinger said.
But she said the loss of Erv Sahr, 82, a longtime dinner volunteer, will be felt. Sahr died unexpectedly on Saturday, Dec. 14. He had helped with the dinner for at least 15 years, she said, including preparing the turkeys and making the gravy. He would good-naturedly tease her and other family members while working with them in the kitchen on the day of the dinner, she added.
“It’s just going to be tough,” she said. “He was a vital part of it with the turkeys.”
The James River Senior Center’s kitchen has been used for the last five years to prepare the turkeys and that was due to Sahr, Meidinger said. The 30 turkeys for this year’s dinner will be prepared there on Saturday.
Meidinger said while the meal began to help people who could not afford a Christmas meal or were alone or grieving, it’s for everyone else too.
“We’ve noticed over the years that some people really really enjoy that fellowship and they’ll stay the whole time,” Meidinger said. “And I’ve had many people come up to say thank you for doing this. Last year, I had a couple people come up and say they actually sat with a friend that they hadn’t seen for years. They both showed up at the church dinner separately and hadn’t seen each other in quite some time and ended up visiting for the whole day. So it’s just an opportunity for stuff like that.”
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What: Community Christmas Dinner
When: Sunday, Dec. 22, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Where: Victory Lutheran Church, 510 9th Ave. SW
Cost: free
Shut-in deliveries: call the church, 251-1570, by 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20