Smiles all around at our Christmas Lunch for Children

2007 Christmas at the Soup Kitchen

We had two special Christmas lunches at the Soup Kitchen this year.  The first was on Friday, December 22nd and was focused exclusively on children.  We went to a local grade school that has over 1,000 students and met with the principal.  We asked him to consult with his staff and select 60 to 70 of the most needy students so we could invite them to a Christmas lunch at the Soup Kitchen.  The teachers and the principal put their heads together and in about 20 minutes, we had about 70 very excited children in the parking lot ready to go!

Our menu for this lunch was turkey dinner, Albanian style.  Normally, turkey is served on New Years Day here and is a very special (and expensive) treat.  The children were very excited to have turkey for lunch and ate with gusto.  After the main course, we served everyone large piece of cake and cake and then we were ready for the next phase of the lunch:  The Circus.  We had contracted with a local circus that tours the Balkans for 4 of their performers.  For about an hour and 10 minutes, the children were entertained with juggling, acrobatics, sword walking & swallowing, as well a dog act.  After the performance, the clowns organized games that the children really enjoyed such as musical chairs.

Finally, after the circus performance, we gave out gifts that we had gathered for the children which consisted of toys, candy, and clothes.  The children's clothes that we gave away came from the Clothes Drive that had been done for us by our home parish, St. Innocent.  The children swarmed over the tables that held the presents and we actually had to work hard to maintain some semblance of order, but all the children received at least one gift.  In all, the program lasted about three hours and its safe to say that everyone had a great time:  kids, adults, and circus performers!

The second lunch was the next day on Saturday, December 23rd.  Saturday is a normal serving day for the Soup Kitchen, but we had put the word out that were doing something special for Christmas Eve.  The result was over 100 people at this lunch with again the special treat of turkey on the menu.  The people enjoyed the decorations and the special food, as well as the flyer we distributed explaining the true meaning of Christmas.  Please see our Soup Kitchen Photo Gallery for more pictures of these events.