PIT Stop and Kamloops Daybreak Rotary provide more than 330 Christmas meals on Sunday

KAMLOOPS — For over a decade, the PIT Stop Program at the United Church has teamed up with the Rotary Club of Kamloops Daybreak to provide a Christmas dinner for people in need in the community. However, it’s more than just a meal these folks are getting.

Just minutes before the doors open to hundreds of hungry people, Rick Windjack does one final sweep through the United Church. As coordinator of the PIT Stop program, he’s used to feeding lots of people. However, the annual Christmas dinner is one of PIT Stop’s biggest events of the year.

“We’re expecting probably way over 300 people to show up today,” Windjack tells CFJC Today. “We are going to make sure that everyone gets an amazing bag of nutritious, delicious, hearty food. Everybody’s getting a gift bag, we have long underwear for everyone, we have gloves for everyone, we have gift cards for everyone. It’s going to be a pretty fabulous afternoon for a lot of people.”

If Rick is PIT Stop’s Santa Claus, then Kamloops Daybreak Rotary is the elves. They provide the people power to make sure folks get fed.

“We started Friday – cooking turkeys, and potatoes, getting all the veg ready,” Rotarian Lynda Mackenzie explains. “I know we had 200 pounds of potatoes and I think we had 42 turkeys. But the turkeys are rather small this year.”

That’s right – 42 turkeys is a lot of poultry. According to volunteers, it dampens their enthusiasm for the festive bird meat. But only a little.

“We will have turkey on Christmas Day, but you feel it in your skin,” Mackenzie says. “It gets into your pores.”

As the hungry people start pouring through the doors at the back of the United Church, the Christmas assembly line kicks into high gear. While it’s efficient, it’s not quite like it was back before the pandemic.

“It’s so different, you know,” Mackenzie says. “Pre-COVID, when we could actually have a sit-down dinner, it was much nicer. We had live music and that type of thing. Maybe next year we’ll be back to a sit-down dinner.”

For Windjack, who sees these folks on a regular basis, he understands the impact the generosity has – especially at this time of year.

“People that are impoverished or street entrenched, they have an opportunity to participate in the Christmas spirit – or that Kamloops spirit – we’re thrilled to be able to do that.”