A Christmas tradition continued again in 2024 at the Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission.
The mission served a complete turkey dinner on Christmas Day with a total of 120 meals served both in-person and take-out. Mission president Tim McAllister and an entire team of volunteers cooked and prepared the turkey dinner, starting in the days prior to Christmas before starting early on Christmas Day.
McAllister said he arrived at the mission at 2 a.m. Christmas morning to help with the dinner.
Volunteers helped prepare and serve not only turkey, but ham, carrots, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and more to those who needed a meal, companionship on Christmas Day or both.
“We cooked ten 25-pound turkeys,” said McAllister.
Turkeys were funded by local company ABC Technology.
McAllister explained he and volunteer Brodie Morin used different methods to prepare the turkeys, each with his own way of doing it, and both were presented on Christmas Day.
“I’m glad (Morin) is helping me. We work together as a team,” said McAllister.
Among the volunteers were board members, community members and people from McAllister’s own family.
An addition to this year’s turkey dinner was some live music, as Monique Belanger was on hand playing her guitar and singing songs of the season.
The Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission has been serving a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings for over 20 years and there are no signs of it stopping any time soon. McAllister said after two decades of putting the meal on, there is still a lot of enthusiasm for it.
“I still have the fire to help the community,” said McAllister. “We’re bringing joy and peace.”
The Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission is located at 298 Victoria St. S. For more information or to donate, visit www.aburgmission.ca or call 519-736-9140.
By Ron Giofu
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