In the season of giving, Amy Moore and her family and staff at Simply Southern are expecting a busy yet fulfilling weekend.
Moore plans on cooking and serving nearly 350 Christmas dinners, all free and all for those who can’t provide a Christmas dinner.
“We’re trying to do a full Christmas dinner for everyone who can’t afford one,” she said.
Moore had a similar undertaking for Thanksgiving, preparing and delivering nearly 350 free dinners.
“We hope to do that much, if not more, this Christmas,” she said.
The dinners will have turkey with dressing and gravy, along with sweet potato soufflé, macaroni and cheese, green beans, a roll and dessert. Each dinner also will come with a bookmark with a Bible verse.
After going shopping for the provisions Thursday, Moore and her crew will start cooking the meals on Friday, and dinners will be ready for pickup Christmas Eve. For Thanksgiving’s endeavor, she and her sister started around 8 a.m. the day before and finished cooking about 10 that night.
What Moore needs are volunteers and donations to help with the dinners. She’s a little more than halfway to her goal of having the money needed to buy all the ingredients necessary for the Christmas dinners. She also needs volunteers to help put the dinners together Friday and Saturday.
“We still need lots of volunteers,” she said. “We’re asking people to donate money and to donate their time, if they can.”
She had just enough to do the Thanksgiving dinners, selling a few extra dinners to local companies who had workers on the job that day to raise the needed cash. She even put together Thanksgiving dinners for Effingham County Sheriff’s deputies who were working that day. Any leftover meals also will be distributed, she said.
Moore and her family and staff did the same thing last year, preparing between 200-250 dinners on Thanksgiving and again on Christmas.
“It’s for people who are out of work or their family is not here or whatever reason, they cannot have a traditional Christmas dinner. Maybe they don’t have the money or the means, or they don’t have a way to get to the store. I have the means here and the facility, and I may as well try to give a little glory back to God.”
For those who would like to help, either with a donation or by volunteering, call Moore at 228-0561 or 658-3532.
UPDATE
Amy Moore, along with Brayden Moore and Leslie Merritt, shows off some of the 430 free Christmas dinners prepared by Moore, volunteers and the Simply Southern restaurant. Moore set a goal of 350, which was eclipsed easily.
