With the holidays around the corner, the Friendship Inn is preparing for its busiest days yet: serving its holiday meals.
“That Christmas Day meal will involve preparing a great turkey dinner for the community that’s going to come in on the on actual Christmas Day,” executive director Sandra Kary told Global News.
With the deep plunge in temperatures and the constant hike in daily expenses, the inn has been seeing more guests drop by.
According to a news release, since September they have been providing 1,500 meals a day, up from their usual standard of 1,000.
“It’s a busy place, so having that much food go out in a day, there’s a lot of hands that are needed,” Kary said.
All December the community organization has been campaigning for its Fill the Plate initiative.
For any donations made between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, Nutrien will match up to $100,000.
With inflation impacting the price of stock, staff are hoping that Saskatoon residents will pitch in to support the city’s most vulnerable.
Not only are they accepting food and monetary donations, but they are also accepting winter gear such as jackets, gloves and scarves.
“Most of our fundraising and most of our budget comes from donations. So we look forward to having the community support us,” she said.
For the last two Christmas meals, the Friendship Inn resorted to a takeaway service style. Kary is proud of the options they can now provide.
“We do both a dine-in and takeaway service still, and we just think that serves our guests really well,” she said.
Mark Lane, the CEO of Affinity Credit Union, has been volunteering at the inn with his colleagues for the past few years.
“There’s no better way to understand the genuineness provided to the community, the genuine benefit provided to the community, than actually attending and being a part of the team that serve the guests here at the inn,” he said.
“It brings us together in an environment that’s important to us because community is important to us. And certainly every year or a couple of times a year, we get an opportunity with a touchpoint here at the inn that really reminds us how important it is to give, not only of our financial resources, but of our time and our energy.”
Kary said the service needs to fill at least 1,000 volunteer hours on a monthly basis and is grateful for their contributions.
“We couldn’t do it without the help of volunteers. So yeah, when you’re running a seven-day week operation, there’s just so much to do,” she said.
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