City Mission cooks up multicultural festive lunch for 2500 guests

By Brendan Manning and Sophie Ryan

NZ Herald·

25 Dec, 2014 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Viaduct Event Centre open it's doors today for the Auckland City Mission and all of its 2500 guests for the Annual Community Christmas lunch. Photo / Nick Reed

Auckland's largest Christmas lunch went off almost without a hitch yesterday as the Auckland City Mission fed more than 2500 people, including one family for whom it has become a tradition.

Marlena Afamasaga said she had been attending the City Mission's Christmas lunch since she was a girl and still attended to celebrate the memory of her sister who died three years ago.

She was joined at the lunch at the Viaduct Events Centre by members of her family and her church.

"It's just nice being here with everyone. I like meeting all the people here. Everyone's from different cultures and walks of life," Ms Afamasaga said.

Tina Vaitai with 1 year old Mele Vaitai and 12 year old Abi Vaitai. Photo / Nick Reed

Around 700 volunteers pitched in to decorate, prepare and cook the lunch, serve meals, and clean up.

The doors opened at 11.30am, lunch was served at 12.30pm and the events centre was packed up and the volunteers back at the mission by 3pm, Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson said.

"It was really nice, it was just a really good vibe."

The only incident was when the kitchen temporarily ran out of gas, she said.

"We were having a wee panic about whether we'd get the food cooked."

However, the gas was soon restored and lunch fed to the waiting masses, she said.

Some familiar faces from the City Mission were at the lunch, along with those who did not want to spend Christmas alone, she said.

"[There was] a mixture of old and new, a lot of elderly. People are lonely. I think people come because they want to share lunch with someone else."

Ms Robertson said she was looking forward to a nap and then Christmas dinner with her son and daughter-in-law.

"Lots of people came up to me afterwards just to say how wonderful it was and how much they enjoyed it. I had a letter this year from a 75-year-old woman who sent me $5 to buy a ticket - we don't sell tickets, but she was lonely and she wanted to come and hadn't had Christmas with people for a while.

"I think those sorts of things are nice. Those are the stories that you think 'oh yeah, this is all worthwhile'."

Volunteer Howard Taylor said he had been helping out at the Christmas lunch for five years.

"It's a really enjoyable day. Seeing the little kids' faces when they're so excited to be here, it's really rewarding."

At least 7000 gifts were distributed.