The Waldo County soup kitchen is hosting a gathering on Christmas day, and because it recently moved to a new location, they are expecting it to be the biggest and most joyous Christmas celebration yet.
The doors will open to guests at 8 a.m. and they will be greeted with coffee, donuts and card games. Around 11 a.m., volunteers will hand out gifts to all of the guests. All of the gifts have been generously donated by the Waldo County community. After gifts are passed out, the guests will sit down for a full turkey dinner, followed by dessert.
For six years, Sheldon Snell has spear-headed the Christmas celebration. Snell organizes the gift donations and has been wrapping them himself. He is also the head chef on Christmas morning.
Snell says, "no one will go home hungry."
The Belfast soup kitchen recently relocated to a bigger facility in the Reny's Plaza. The new facility allows the soup kitchen to serve more people on a regular basis and Christmas morning will be no exception.
Snell is prepared to serve more than a hundred people on Christmas. That's dozens more than in years past.
Snell says this kind of event is important in Waldo County. "Mid-Maine needs this kind of facility. I can understand Portland and Bangor get the big Christmas dinners, but we've got a little thing going here and we want people to come here and utilize it."
The Belfast soup kitchen is still looking for gift and food donations. They can be dropped off during regular working hours (10:30am-12:30pm) at the soup kitchen's new location in the Reny's Plaza in Belfast.