The 24th Annual Yuletide Dinner will be a go on December 8th in Williams Lake.
However, it won’t be the traditional sit-down event that has been taking place over the past two decades at the Sacred Heart School.
Executive Director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre, Vanessa Riplinger, explained how this year’s dinner will be held.
“We’re doing a drive-thru dinner, so it’s a no-contact pickup. We’re asking those who would like to receive a meal to come through in-person and drive-thru to pick up a pre-packaged traditional Christmas dinner. We’ll have people there directing traffic in the parking lot of the Sacred Heart Catholic School. You must remain in the vehicle and staff will be happy to deliver the dinner to you and family members must be present in the vehicle to receive the meal.”
The Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre along with their partner St Vincent De Paul Society expect to prepare 300 meals.
Last years take-out, drive-thru style Yuletide Dinner had to be cancelled due to the new COVID-19 restrictions that were in place at that time.
Riplinger noted that the CDC is aware that there are a lot of their families that don’t have vehicles and went over how they plan to help them out.
“We’re speaking to some families that don’t have transportation so that we can figure out how we’re going to get some of those meals to them. If that’s the case and you don’t have transportation, you could probably put a call into the Child Development Centre and we can figure out how to get some meals to you.”
Riplinger added that when last years Yuletide Dinner got interrupted by COVID, they got baskets and food hampers out to some of their families that they knew we’re needing some extra help.
“We’re really planning this event the best way we can to really try and get out as much Christmas cheer as we can and as many meals as we can to the families,” Riplinger said.
The 24th annual Yuletide drive-thru dinner will take place Wednesday, December 8th, from 4:30 to 6 at the Sacred Heart School in Williams Lake.