Group to feed the community on Christmas
Published 9:11 pm Monday, December 18, 2017
Last month, the Up All Night Thanksgiving Dinner provided more than 700 meals for local people. Now, the organizers are planning to do it again on Christmas Day.
Jimmy Edwards, organizer of the Up All Night Christmas Dinner, said they expect to provide around 700 meals again on Christmas Day. The meals are cooked at the Old Cannon Street School, located at 115 Cannon Street.
“I really truly don’t shoot for a number but normally on Christmas we get at least 700,” Edwards said.
Volunteers are still needed to help out with the annual dinner, which was started by Jake Sessions in 1989. Sessions, a radio and TV host, said his 28th year overseeing the dinner will be his last, though he will stay involved in future years in some capacity.
“It feeds the less fortunate, the down and out and the senior citizens,” Sessions said.
In recent years, he’s given more of the control to Edwards, who has organized it for several years.
“I had to slow down because we were feeding 1,000 a year because we had the support from the community,” Sessions said.
Over the years, many of the people who helped start the dinner are now unable to, but Session said others have picked up the slack.
The dinner is put on through help from the community and wouldn’t be possible without volunteers, Edwards said. He said they are asking for donations of macaroni and cheese, ham and turkey.
Donations can be dropped off at Lakes-Dunson-Robertson Funeral Home, located at 201 Hamilton Road, and Good Seed Christian Bookstore, located at 205 South Greenwood Street in LaGrange. Lunch will be served at 11 a.m.
For more information, call Edwards at (706) 443-8961.