If you have got the back-to-work January blues and want to read something heart-warming and uplifting to prolong that festive feeling for a little longer – then you are in the right place.

Our Christmas Day Feast for guests, hosted on none other than December 25^th, was full of festive cheer, delicious food, presents in abundance and even some musical magic! Our objective was to ensure that our guests did not spend Christmas alone, and the registration for the meal focused on those who live alone and would otherwise be on their own for the day, and single parent families.

It’s safe to say the day was a success – and 200 dinners were gobbled up no problem, with leftovers shared out too!

Look no further to see exactly what went down…

Our venue for the event was local secondary school Ark Elvin Academy. As well as partnering with us for our weekly Community Kitchen sessions on a Wednesday, the school very generously donated the venue space for the day. With a top-of-the range kitchen and an enormous dining room to spread out in, we were spoilt!

 

The prep was just as fun as the event! Starting on Christmas eve, our volunteers peeled, chopped, prepped and stirred up a storm in the kitchen. The tables were also decorated, including crackers, tinsel, beautiful holly and fern centrepieces (from St Raph’s Edible Garden no less!).

 

Christmas morning was an early start for our kitchen elves, ensuring the delicious menu was all on time and under control – all of course under the watchful eye of our Chef Jas. He curated the festive menu and kept an eye on an alarming amount of spinning plates all day (not literally – right, Jas?). Christmas dinner for 200 is no mean feat and he managed it all without breaking a sweat. Thanks also to Saima of The Hampstead Kitchen for donating the chickens, BritVic for donating all the drinks and our corporate sponsors for helping us pull this whole thing off!

 

With no public transport on Christmas Day, our brilliant team of Christmas Day volunteers drove to collect all of our guests from their homes. A real feat, with tens of drivers darting around the borough picking up and dropping off.

 

After nibbles and a delicious starter, our guests were treated to an incredible performance from Bill and Josie Thorpe. Whilst moonlighting as a Sufra volunteer driver, Bill is actually a professional musician. The viola and cello combo sounded beautiful to ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘When I’m 64’ and more! One of our guests even treated us to an impromptu performance of ‘Amazing Grace’. What a treat!

The dinner also saw a guest appearance from none other than Santa and his Helper! Our yearly partnership with That’s a Wrap meant that we had presents for all of the children attendees – including teddies, toys and more.

 

We were so pleased to host this event for the Sufra family on Christmas Day.

If you would like to donate to our other projects this Winter (which include feeding over 900 people per week across our Food Bank hubs and running multiple warm and cosy Community Kitchens) please do see our Winter Appeal: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/sufrasurvivingwinterappeal2022