JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A central Kentucky homeless shelter is prepping its kitchen for it's third annual Christmas meal.
Jessamine County Homeless Coalition is getting ready to feed more than 600 people for this year's Christmas Meal on Friday, December 20.
Last year, the coalition fed 540 people and with the amount of people they fed for Thanksgiving, they are prepared for a full house.
"It's a lot of meals to crank out in technically we're serving in three hours. So we do a lot of prep work for two to three days but the actual go time is three hours, 200 meals an hour," explains Johnny Templin, the homeless coalition's executive director. "When we started it, the default I thought was about a meal. Somebody not having a holiday meal, but what we've seen, especially with the Thanksgiving one is a lot of people don't have family, don't have community."
Although the shelter has several ingredients for the dinner ready to go, it still needs the community's help in gathering more to make sure they have enough for everyone.
"Almost everything really to some level. Hams we still need about eight, 12, 13 pound hams we can serve there. We still need gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, corn, green beans, rolls and desserts. We need it all kind of," Templin details.
If you are unable to stay for the meal, the shelter is also offering both a drive-thru and to-go trays. "Last year at Christmas, more than 50% of the meals were made through the drive-through, so there's an incredible need regardless of what it is. We know you get a little something extra if you come inside but if you can't, you can't."
Donations can be dropped off at the Jessamine County Homeless Coalition on Maple Street in downtown Nicholasville. Anyone with donations can drop them off this week between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.
If you'd like to be a volunteer for the shelter, you can do so by following this link: Christmas volunteer.
