© Can Stock Photo / StephanieFrey© Can Stock Photo / StephanieFrey
Chatham

Free Christmas dinner in Chatham

Hundreds of people will get Christmas dinner on Sunday, thanks to the generosity of a local business owner.

Brent Ripley and his wife own Betty Brite Dry Cleaners, and have been putting on the Community Cares Christmas dinner for 12 years.

"The soup kitchens show up at the end of the night and they pick everything up that we don't use," said Ripley. "So everything above and beyond, it always gets used, it always goes to the soup kitchens. So if you would like to drop off a bag of potatoes, or you'd like to drop off some desserts, a bag of carrots, it will go right to the soup kitchens."

Donations can be dropped off at Betty Brite on Keil Dr.

Ripley said they feed a lot of people, but it's about more that just the dinner.

"We were reaching 600 last year, we do takeouts now. We actually have Santa Claus show up, we give out presents to the kids, we have about 120 kids that we give presents to. So it's just exploded."

The dinner is free and takes place at the WISH Centre in Chatham, 4-6 p.m.

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