Help Serve Up Christmas Cheer to the Needy

If you're all ready to make your holiday memorable, here's a great way to make it so for those in need.

The Christmas Cheer Foundation needs volunteers to help assemble and deliver an estimated 15,000 meals to individuals, families and seniors in 30 communities, including Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park and the west side of Chicago.

All the work starts at 5:30 a.m. Dec. 25 on the Priory campus of Dominican University, 7200 W. Division St., River Forest.  

What’s for supper? Ham steaks, potato salad, corn, buns and pastry, said Phil Calabrese, the foundation's secretary-treasurer.

Once the meals are assembled, drivers will deliver the meals, along with a gift for each child—a stuffed animal, or a book depending on the age, he said.

Referrals are given to the foundation by area social workers. From there a database is built, Calabrese said.

What do people have to do?

"All you have to do is show up (Christmas Day)," he said. "We're usually done around 11 a.m."

The feeling of helping others on Christmas Day is hard to put into words, he said.

"People can come home and eat their own dinner and feel good about helping out," Calabrese. "This means a lot to the volunteers. They're helping fill someone's dreams of getting a good meal. It's all pretty incredible."