By Joe Mancini
Published March 2025
This Christmas season was a busy time. We received overflowing generosity as the community responded to ensure many meals were available through the Christmas season. During mid-December, Maurita’s Kitchen on Queen Street was extra busy as over 1000 pounds of turkey were cooked and prepared for serving. In the final days massive quantities of potatoes, vegetables and gravy were produced and made ready. Altogether about 800 Christmas meals were prepared and served at St. John’s Kitchen, King Street Shelter and the Erbs Road Shelter. Chef Michael Bertling our Maurita’s Kitchen team and volunteers chopped, prepared and cooked hundreds of pounds of turkey, potatoes, carrots and bread so that they could be served at the Christmas meals.
On Thursday December 19th, about 480 meals were served at a special Christmas dinner at St. John’s Kitchen. The annual St. John’s Christmas dinner has a special focus for those living in encampments and the wider community who regularly use St. John’s Kitchen. This was the second year in a row that we served the Christmas meal in the gymnasium of St. John’s Anglican Church. For the last few years, in contrast to about 500 people showing up between 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, the meal flows through the whole day, starting around 10:30 and ending closer to 4:00. During that time gifts are distributed and it always remains a special day in the St. John’s Kitchen year.
On Christmas Day, The Working Centre was open in three different locations. We served special sit down meals at the King Street Shelter and the Erbs Road Shelter. At the King Street Shelter where 100 people live together in common, so much is shared. Christmas Day we celebrate the main meal all together, creating a festive and family-like setting. Staff and volunteers all join in the celebration providing a full Christmas meal along with music played by musician Michael Kelly. The same is true at the Erbs Road Shelter, where 50 people live in small cabins. The Christmas dinner was served as a sit down meal in the main community centre where all were welcome. Christmas doesn’t always bring good memories, and often is a time that emphasizes the loss of family ties. The celebrations are important and each person participates as they are able. This is the time of year when we emphasize how we all stand as family with one another.
This year our community was blessed by two other acts of generosity. Before COVID, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society had provided and coordinated a Christmas Eve dinner from Swiss Chalet for almost 25 years. This was a tradition that people looked forward to. The pandemic interrupted this, but this year the Kitchener-Waterloo Swiss Chalet franchises all pitched in to provide 500 chicken dinners for the St. John’s Kitchen Christmas Eve lunch. We heard that Swiss Chalet staff were happy to put in the extra time to make this meal possible. People coming to St. John’s Kitchen were so pleased that the tradition started again. It has always made for a festive day on Christmas Eve.
The next day, Bingemans offered to provide a Christmas meal to St. John’s Kitchen. This generous offer meant that we could open the kitchen with volunteers and ensure a full Christmas meal could be served. It was very special to be open, in the gym at St. John’s church serving the Christmas meal on Christmas Day. May thanks to all the volunteers, to our team members who hosted, and to Bingemans for helping to make this day special.
