Volunteers needed for Mission's Christmas meal program

Preparations for Christmas dinner at the United Gospel Rescue Mission are underway.

“The mission can’t do holidays without volunteers,” stressed Mission Executive Director Rev. Greg Kirk.

“We’re getting geared up for Christmas,” said Kirk, who is hoping Christmas might be less hectic than Thanksgiving. “For whatever reason, we do less on Christmas. I never really figured it out, other than maybe more people are going some place. If we serve 1,600 on Thanksgiving, I bet we’ll serve 1,200 to 1,300 on Christmas. That’s still a lot of people.”

Anyone wanting Christmas dinner delivered has through Wednesday, Dec. 22, to call the mission at 573-785-4683.

“All you need to do is call,” Kirk said. “We don’t check your income or anything. Tell us how many people are in your family, how many trays you need and a phone number and address, in case the driver gets lost they can call you. Every now and then, we really need a phone number.”

Anyone who wants to share Christmas dinner with others may come to the mission for lunch.

Kirk and his staff will need help prepping food Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday like always, from 9 a.m. to noon.

“We’ve got a bunch of stuff to get done,” he said.

Christmas day volunteers will be needed to fill the food boxes and deliver the meals.

“I don’t have enough staff to feed 500 and we’re gonna probably have three times that,” he said. “We absolutely have to have volunteers. Drivers are very important and we need them at 10:30 a.m. (Christmas Day). We seriously did not have enough drivers Thanksgiving.”

While visions of sugar plums may be dancing in some folks’ dreams, desserts are always on Kirk’s mind when he’s planning a holiday meal. He especially is looking forward to iced Christmas cookies.

“The big thing we’re going to need, obviously, is our desserts and pies. We like to have Christmas cookies: snowflakes, bells, cornucopias, whatever frosted cookies,” Kirk said. “They can come in any time next week.”

The mission crew will smoke extra turkeys to sell to the public. Anyone wanting a turkey needs to call 573-785-4683 by Thursday, Dec. 23, because “I need to make sure I have enough turkeys in house,” Kirk said. The 20-pound turkeys are $30 for a whole one and $40 for sliced.