Near full house for Community Christmas dinner

December 26th, 2014

About 240 people and 43 volunteer servers enjoyed the second Motueka Community Christmas dinner yesterday, thanks to the generous provision of food and other goodies by donors and community organisations.

The volunteers said this year's event was probably even better than the 2013 dinner, with improvements made from lessons learned from the inaugural event.

This year the catering was made a little more certain by making it ticket-only entry. Tickets were given out mainly to people applying for them through churches and social agencies. The actual number, however, was about 40 fewer than tickets sold.

Most of the people there were families for whom Christmas is a financial struggle, people living on their own or who would otherwise have their Christmas midday meal alone, and some orchard workers.

The organising team, led again by Rankeilor Arnott, worked very efficiently in setting up the tables on the day before, and plating up the servings on the day.

As with last year, the hall looked spectacularly colourful and joyous, thanks to flower arrangements, table decorations and the Christmas tree decoration, all done by community groups.

Lyn Canton MC'ed the event, which featured a number of entertainment slots playing a wide array of music from standard classics to ukulele, brass ensemble to islanders singing.

Here are some of the photos taken at the event, mainly by Juliet Arnott and some by June Vincent.

Filling up fast	Food cooked at MOTET is transfered to the hall
Prepared sweets	Pat welcomes arriving guests
	Samoan group performing

The brass ensemble entertaining beside the tree

Quiet music to dine to	The Vanuatu band performing
Some of the 240 salads dished up	Volunteer servers at the ready

The meat is plated ...	... and the veges added
The ukulele band entertains	Table decorations

All the happy volunteers ... ready to go!

Comment by Malcolm Beech:
[Posted 28 December 2014]

My wife Karen and I are here from the UK on holiday for a few months, we are staying in Tapu Bay. We volunteered to help out at the Motueka Christmas Lunch because the people of the Motueka area have welcomed us and been so kind and generous. We found the whole experience uplifting and once again were made to feel welcome and part of the community.

In fact, in view of the reception we have been given since arriving in New Zealand, we have now applied for emigration! We will be sad to bid you all a farewell in March - but hopefully will see you all again soon. Thank you.

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