Central Maine family Christmas dinner returns after a three year hiatus due to the pandemic

WINSLOW, Maine (WABI) – “We didn’t know what to expect for today but I am pleased with it,” Ziggy Lawrence said.

Ziggy Lawrence and his wife, Kimberley Knox-Lawrence started the dinner celebration 15 years ago.

“Everybody seems to think that it was for the poor or the needy, but it’s not, it’s for folks like us who were alone for Christmas,” Kimberly said.

They started planning for the event a few months ago, but after the recent storm, Lawrence says he was uncertain if they could even hold the event.

“We didn’t get the electricity till late Wednesday in the school, the school was without and so we were supposed to get food delivery on Wednesday, well we couldn’t deliver the food with no refrigeration for it,” Ziggy said.

Luckily, it all worked out, thanks to all of the volunteers including the cooks.

“We have a traditional Christmas dinner, we have turkey, stuffing gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes,” Kimberley said.

Lawrence says they planned to feed 1000 people, and while they did not reach that number, he says it was great to see people enjoying themselves after a tough year in Maine.

“It’s been a real blessing to do this, to put it together, to see it come together is really kind of neat,” Ziggy said.

“We lost our power for three days, a lot of people lost it for longer, we were blessed not to have so we try to get people that have lost their power, lost their food to come to the dinner,” Kimberley said.

For Mark Burton who has been volunteering at the event for years, he says the love in the room shows that Mainers are resilient.

“This is very important; there are still people out there with no power, there are still hungry people, and we have the ability, and we are fortunate enough to help people out,” Burton said.

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