Christmas is traditionally a time to overindulge and enjoy the bounties of the holiday season with friends and families, but not everyone in Jasper is so fortunate.
That’s why for the past 20 years the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion has hosted a free Christmas dinner on Dec. 25.
“It’s an event that’s all about the community,” said Ken Kuzminski, president of the legion.
“Robert Brown, the [former] president of the legion, started doing it Christmas Day 20 years ago and he kept it up until Patrick stepped in with the Food Bank, and the railway union has stepped in to help the past few years,” explained Kuzminski.
Over the years the event has grown in size from just a few turkeys to six turkeys and all the fixings.
It’s also become an opportunity for people to socialize with other members of the community, so they’re not alone at Christmas time, explained Kuzminski.
Patrick Mooney, president of the Jasper Food Bank, has spent Christmas at the legion cooking and serving dinner for the past 13 years.
“This is just my way of being in service to the community, it’s as simple as that,” said Mooney.
“I go home at night feeling like we really filled a need in this community by giving people who would normally be eating alone or not eating turkey at all an opportunity to come in and break bread with community members.”
The dinner is served around 5 p.m. and usually feeds about 100 people throughout the evening.
“It’s a full, beautiful turkey dinner and a lot of people are involved,” said Mooney, adding there is usually a group of six to 10 volunteers that help out every year.
“On Christmas Eve I take the turkeys out to the Jasper Park Lodge, the lodge cooks the turkeys up on Christmas morning, I go back out at 4 o’clock Christmas afternoon and they have it all sliced up in inserts and they give me a bucket of gravy,” said Mooney.
TAGS also pitches in, providing homemade dressing for the dinner.
Volunteers at the legion prepare the remainder of the meal, including, potatoes, turnips, carrots, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
“It’s a full-meal deal,” said Mooney.
“Normally it’s a mixed group, locals that are eating alone and don’t have much money or are away from family, and the other half is pretty much Marmot staff that worked that day,” said Mooney.
No one is asked or expected to donate money, but he said Marmot employees usually end up passing around an empty beer pitcher to collect donations.
“It’s a nice gesture,” said Mooney, adding the meal is a dry event.
To volunteer, contact Mooney at [email protected] or call him at 780-852-4090.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
