Friendship Inn offering traditional turkey meal for Christmas

Turkey will be served on the plates of many this Christmas, including those visiting the Friendship Inn.

From 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 25, the 20th Street soup kitchen will be offering a traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixings.

Read more:

• ‘Lots of love’: Regina’s Soul Harbour Rescue Mission ready for another Christmas meal
• Tradition and tech meet at Saskatoon’s Salvation Army kettles
• Saskatoon Friendship Inn ready to serve up Thanksgiving dinner

“We have the best head chef, I think, in the city and this turkey dinner is probably better than most I’ve had, and don’t tell my mom that because I think it’s better than hers,” the Friendship Inn’s executive director Sandra Kary said.

Anyone’s welcome to come enjoy the meal. Kary estimates between 1,500 to 1,800 people will show up.

“Every year this number grows,” she said, adding how people are having a harder time making ends meet until the end of every month, with December adding even more pressure.

It’s a festive meal that requires a lot of hands.

“We really rely on the community support in the area to help us provide the food, the donations, the volunteering,” Kary said. “It’s a team effort.”

Supporting the soup kitchen

The Friendship Inn is in the midst of its Fill-the-Plate campaign, lasting until the end of December.

It’s sponsored by Nutrien, which will match donations up to $125,000, with every $5 donation providing one plate of food.

While the soup kitchen would be happy to receive more donations as the month draws to a close, Kary said currently the campaign is going “pretty well.”

According to Kary, the inn has enough volunteers for December.

But, she expected that will change once January hits and the weather gets colder, causing more people to stay home.

The soup kitchen open every day of the year for breakfast and lunch, feeding hundreds of people each day, but Kary said that’s the time of year, “when we need help.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can sign up on the Friendship Inn’s website.

Christmas meal in Regina

Some in the Queen City got their turkey fix earlier this week, when Regina’s Soul Harbour Rescue Mission served its Christmas meal on Dec. 23.

While the director of Christian ministries for the rescue mission, Taeryong No, said the number of people who come is weather-dependent, similar to Kary, he pointed towards the increased demand.

In 2024, No said 350 people came to the turkey dinner. But, for this year’s Thanksgiving meal, the organization fed around 650 people, even though temperatures were warmer than usual.

Another connection between the two kitchens is the dependence on community support.

“We rely on the volunteers a lot,” No said. “They are doing everything; scooping the meal, delivering the meal, and cleaning up the dining room.”

All of the work is worth it to make people coming out for the meal, “feel like they are not alone and they are always together with our community,” he said.

– with files from 650 CKOM’s Nicole Garn