The annual Christmas Dinner that traditionally takes place at the Pro-Cathedral will have a new venue in 2020.
Organizers announced that the meal will instead be served in the hallways of North Bay Memorial Gardens.
Sylvia Antinozzi, Chair, Community Christmas Day Dinner Committee says they found out at the end of the summer the church would not be available as a site for the Christmas Dinner due to COVD-19.
"You have to have been to one of the Christmas Day dinners to really understand the feelings and emotions that are there," explained Antinozzi.
"Last year I was crying before we even opened up the door but it was amazing. We had so many volunteers willing, on the go, and happy to be there, as well as welcoming all kinds of different people who are all treated with pride and respect."
Al McDonald says the committee reached out to him in early October about the idea of using Memorial Gardens for the meals.
"They reached out to tell us the Pro-Cathedral was not available and we want to work with our community partners to help our most vulnerable and our lonely seniors so we wanted to step so I think that's what city council and city staff are all about," said McDonald.
Dennis Chippa, executive director at the Gathering Place, says they were asked to partner up this year to help deliver all the meals.
"It was an easy thing for us to do also with the uniqueness of COVID-19 to have the experience of putting together the 'to-go' meals and how a 'to-go' lineup works so we have a little bit of experience to add to that," explained Chippa.
Last year the Christmas feast fed more than 400 people. This year, due to COVID-19 protocols, only 50 people will be allowed in at once to eat and takeout food is also permitted.
Chippa believes in a world full of cancellations, navigating through a pandemic to find a way to still host this event was very important.
"It has been a year of 'we cannots' and it is a holiday season where it seems like every couple of days there is a different thing that is not going to happen and when Sylvia approached us if we can't all get together on this, the dinner may not happen and in a year of so many 'cannot happens' I just thought it was really important to have a 'can happen,'' he said.
Organizers were also thrilled to receive a cheque for $3000 from Rebuilt Resources to help allow the event to happen in 2020.
"We want the citizens to know that when push comes to shove our community works together to make North Bay a better place to live," added Antinozzi.
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