Every year White Goose Bistro, opens its doors on Christmas Day and invites everyone and anyone to enjoy a turkey dinner together.
The family-run restaurant offers the meal free of charge to anyone who needs or wants a nice place to go and some good company on Christmas Day.
“Truthfully, why we started doing it was for lonely people,” says White Goose Bistro part-owner Fallon Moreland.
She says when they started doing the dinners about five years ago, they thought about people who aren’t necessarily struggling financially, but for whatever reason are spending Christmas alone.
“There are people that are lonely, like a single dad with his kids, students that aren’t going home for Christmas or seniors that don’t have any family,” says Moreland.
She says people who don’t have any financial issues might not feel comfortable attending a dinner hosted by a charity organization, and would otherwise just stay home alone.
“So the concept was to do this sort of dinner where anybody and everybody would feel comfortable and no one would feel awkward,” says Moreland.
They welcome people from all walks of life, from people struggling with homelessness to groups of senior ladies who will come and sit for hours drinking tea and chatting.
“You get to know people — you get into conversations with people because it is a good time to sit and talk with people. The feeling inside the restaurant that day could lift you up. It’s so heartwarming.”
White Goose Bistro’s staff and their families all volunteer their time to come in on Christmas Day and get the meal ready.
“We have all of our staff volunteer that day — my kids, our staff’s kids. They all love getting involved and doing it. There’s so many friends and family that come that no one really has to do a lot with so many people helping,” says Moreland.
“We love that day. Our staff loves that day. We honestly get more out of it than we are giving.”
Royal LePage and the Hospital Employees Union also donate all of the homemade baked desserts for the meal, like sugar cookies, butter tarts and pies.
This year, Moreland is also looking for local bands or choirs who are willing to play live music during the dinner, and she already has a few people interested in volunteering their time.
“So hopefully that comes together because that would be so fun.”
Even though White Goose Bistro has anywhere from 300 to 400 people attend the dinner, Moreland says there is always a ton of leftovers and room for even more people to join them.
The turkey dinner takes place on Christmas Day from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the White Goose Bistro on 1205 Third Avenue.
