Souris Christmas dinner gets the green light from public health

Anyone craving a country-style Christmas dinner in the Souris area this year can breathe a sigh of relief: The popular annual Souris Christmas dinner has received approval from the provincial government to go ahead in a modified format.

The free dinner will be offered only as take-out, due to COVID-19 restrictions. The volunteers behind the initiative created a COVID-safe operational plan that was approved Thursday by the Chief Public Health Office of P.E.I.  

"Leading up to getting the approval yesterday, there was always the fear that we would lose it because of, you know, the COVID outbreaks and stuff on P.E.I.," said Melvin Ford, the co-founder of the dinner. 

"But we remained optimistic."

Last year, volunteers served Christmas dinner to about 300 people, and this year, 150 people have already signed up, before any advertising by the team. 

Ford said the public health office was very happy with the plan. 

"[They] said, 'We don't want this dinner to stop. We need it this year more than ever.'"  

Volunteers will all be masked and screened 

This will be the sixth year that Ford and his team will coordinate the Souris dinner, which is cooked from scratch by volunteers using donated food.  

The big difference in 2020 was figuring out how to have the volunteer cooks and delivery drivers all working together while staying safe.  

"Instead of bringing everybody together under one roof, we had to look at, how do we provide a meal without having people come to us?"

On Christmas Eve, 50 volunteers will prep the food for the dinner at St. Mary's Parish Hall in Souris, with cooks wearing masks and working in teams of  two at stations that are two metres apart.

There will be an extra hand-washing sink, as well as sanitizing stations throughout the hall. All volunteers will have to register in advance and go through a COVID-19 screening questionnaire. 

As for the Christmas Day deliveries, Ford said he is recruiting drivers from Dingwells Mills to East Point who will each have their own route. 

Instead of bringing everybody together under one roof, we had to look at, how do we provide a meal without having people come to us?- Melvin Ford

Volunteers will form an assembly line to pack meals and leave them in an insulated bag in the lobby of the hall, so that no one has to come in contact with the driver. 

"The driver will then come in, pick up his [order], drive away, do the delivery, his route's done," said Ford.  

Ford said the public health office did not make any changes to the plan he proposed. 

"Our plan was very detailed from the get-go because we, you know, we were all aware of COVID and we wanted to protect ourselves and protect our clients." 

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