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Communitas Christmas Day Lunch tradition in Abbotsford continues

Annual event provides meal and festive gifts to almost 40 people
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The Communitas Christmas Day Lunch has been a tradition for more than two decades. (Submitted file photo)

Just as it did for so many people, the pandemic had a big impact on a Communitas Supportive Care Society tradition: the Christmas Day Lunch.

For the last two Christmases, the annual event has been held virtually, with food and gifts delivered to the homes of the people the organization serves.

This year, the Christmas Day Lunch returns to an in-person event.

“We are so grateful that people will be able to gather face to face again and share this meal with the people we serve who might otherwise be alone on Christmas Day,” says Communitas CEO Karyn Santiago.

For over two decades, Communitas has made the lunch a priority, serving a full meal with all the trimmings to nearly 40 people. It is essential that the lunch is served on Christmas Day, when the need to be with people you care about is felt so keenly.

RELATED: Communitas Supportive Care Society celebrates a virtual Christmas

Annette Borrows and her family volunteer at the event. She once worked with Communitas in the area of mental health and remembers a particular Christmas over two decades ago when she and her colleagues began getting devastating phone calls from the people they served.

Feelings of disconnection and loneliness were having a serious, in some cases life-threatening, impact on their mental health.

“It was awful and a wake-up call to us,” she remembers. “From that day forward the team decided that we would not let another Christmas Day go by, and the Christmas Day Lunch was born.”

Along with a satisfying meal, each guest receives wrapped Christmas gifts, many of them donated by Communitas staff or made possible through generous donations from local businesses and faithful donors.

Volunteers decorate, prepare the meal, sing carols, play bingo, and more. Although Borrows works for another agency today, she and her family continue to make the lunch a priority as they have every Christmas since it first began. Even during the pandemic, they prepared the meal that was delivered by other volunteers.

“It’s just become our tradition as well,” she says.

Santiago is grateful for such dedicated volunteers and for the way in which people in the community make the event possible.

“Having this Christmas Day Lunch each year has a deep impact on the lives of the people we serve,” she says. “We couldn’t do it without these amazing volunteers and the generosity of our community.”

Visit CommunitasCare.com for more information.