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Volunteers needed for Christmas dinner |
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Wednesday, 16 December 2009 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
Hundreds of residents have an opportunity to get a hot meal and spend Christmas with friends and neighbors thanks to dozens of volunteers and donations that make the Bishop Community Christmas Dinner possible.
The annual event is an opportunity for residents to share a meal, volunteer their time, sing Christmas carols and just celebrate community togetherness.
The annual Bishop Community Christmas Dinner will be held from noon-3 p.m. Christmas day at the Bishop Senior Center behind the park in Bishop where volunteers and Senior Center kitchen staff will be cooking up a classic Christmas dinner complete with roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, biscuits and all the rest.
With more than 600 residents either attending the community dinner at the Senior Center or ordering their meal for delivery, it is no simple task to organize the annual event.
But one of the amazing things about Bishop’s Community Christmas Dinner is that “everything is donated,” said Senior Center Head Chef Stephanie Fletcher.
There about 60 volunteers and more than a dozen merchants and individuals who cook, clean up, deliver meals and donate all the delicacies for the meal. In addition to those who donate food for the dinner, the Inyo County Cattlemen’s Association donates all the roast beef for the meal.  Volunteers serve up Christmas Dinner at the Bishop Senior Center. Everyone is invited to attend the free community event from noon-3 p.m. Christmas Day. File photo Help for the 2009 Christmas dinner is still needed, however.
“We almost always have an overload of volunteers, but this year we’ve only got about a quarter of our volunteer list filled,” Fletcher said. “We are in dire need of someone to deliver to Big Pine.”
Fletcher said there are always between 10 and 20 dinners to be delivered in Big Pine, which amounts to less than an hour worth of work.
She is also looking for kitchen help and anyone who is willing to help organize the distribution of dinners to drivers and help clean up after the dinner.
“Volunteers do all the serving and driving and I come in and do all the cooking,” Fletcher said. She added that Bishop’s small-town atmosphere makes the Community Christmas dinner possible every year.
“The fact that it’s such a small town has something to do with it, we have a lot of home town residents who are willing to volunteer every year,” Fletcher said.
But it’s not just the volunteer help that makes the Christmas Dinner possible.
The Inyo Mono Area Agency on Aging is the principal host of the event, but, with a dwindling budget, IMAAA doesn’t have the resources to make the dinner happen each year. That’s why it’s important that community members and local businesses volunteer to work and donate food for the event.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 January 2010 )
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