VFW Christmas Dinner Spreads Holiday Cheer

Dinner Provides Event For People Who Can't Be With Family on the Holiday

DULUTH, Minn. – Across the Northland, families are spending time together to celebrate Christmas Eve, but some families can’t be together on the holiday.

The VFW in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood provided a free Christmas Eve dinner, open to everyone who would otherwise be alone on the holiday.

For more than three decades, the VFW Post 137 has served Christmas cheer to hundreds of guests.

“Everything you see is a donation from our wonderful, loving community,” said Kendall Linn, an event coordinator. “All the food, all the decorations, the poinsettias, everything. And then everyone working this event is a volunteer that just comes in to help cook, set, bus, serve, do gifts, everything.”

This year was one of their busiest meals ever.

“We’ve got some younger folks. We’ve got a lot of veterans that come in. We get a lot of people from the air base that come in for us,” said Linn. “It’s a wide slice of society.”

Many guests came to spend time with their neighbors.

“My mother in law is in the hospital right now and we won’t have Christmas until next week when she gets out,” said Shane O’Brien while enjoying his meal. “This is our only time we can even be out here and enjoy our good meal with friends and everything else.”

They ate next to each other, getting stuffed on Christmas favorites.

“We cooked seventy turkeys, we did five hundred pounds of fresh mashed potatoes, a hundred fifty pounds of sweet potatoes, we have green beans, homemade dressing,” said Linn.

By the time they left, many at the meal had made new friends.

“Usually I don’t leave right away. Usually I visit with people,” said Mike Little, while eating his meal.

“And it’s really nice to watch the volunteers bond,” said Linn. “We get volunteers that come back year after year and basically form a friendship through here.”

It was an event that brought people together from all walks of life, helping them feel the Christmas spirit.

“I think it brings out all the good in the community,” said Linn. “This year’s been a little divisive in politics and other issues. This kind of gives us all a common ground of helping each other, taking care of each other, and just sharing the love. It’s what Christmas is.”