Hundreds of people fed at the Community Christmas Dinner

MERRITT – The Community Christmas Dinner took place on Wednesday (December 14) and was a huge success.

“It was just something that really needed to be done,” said Organizer Charlton Martin. “It was just great there was so many people happy and that’s what I wanted.”

Martin said there was between 600-700 suppers served to the community during the night in a packed Civic Centre with barely any food left over.

“We had two turkeys left and a few sweets, that was it. It was great, this time it was for everybody, there was so many people that are living in hotels and you know so many people that have been affected by the floods and I wanted people to come in, sit down, and eat. I just enjoy the fact that people from Merritt actually really care, this town has a heart like a hammer and its really high time we saw it again.”

Even though this dinner has taken a couple of years off, due to everything that has happened to the community, it returned with a bang.

“First we had COVID, then we had the fires, and then the floods and it’s like holy crap something had to be done. I haven’t done it since 2018 because of all those reasons and it was just something that really needed to be done for the community.”

The fact that everyone came together for a night of fun and good food brought back good memories for Martin.

“It actually reminded me of my grandmother because back home, we are a pretty well known family especially with dad, my grandmother would say many times ‘if government and people could sit down have a great meal, laugh, smile, then most of the worlds problems could be solved over dinner’, and she was right and I saw that last night.”

Martin wanted to thank all the sponsors and volunteers who came out to help because he knew without them this night wouldn’t have been possible.

“Mr. Mikes and Mason [Dusome] they gave me all the turkeys, all the mashed potatoes, and all the vegetables. All the people that contributed everything, I want to thank them because it is very important to me.”