‘A celebration of community and love’: Wayside Chapel feeds 1,000 Sydneysiders Christmas lunch

The Wayside Chapel in Sydney has fed around 1,000 Sydneysiders experiencing homelessness today. Their annual Christmas Day Street Party is back, with Hughes Street in Kings Cross transformed to host the free seated Christmas lunch, complete with all the trimmings for people with nowhere to go this Christmas. “It takes a cast of hundreds to feed 1,000 people, and for a few weeks now, the plans have been on in earnest,” Wayside Chapel Chief Executive and Pastor Jon Owen told Sky News Australia. “It all comes together in a celebration of community and love, and an outpouring of joy as they’ve all got a bellyful of a beautiful Christmas lunch with all the trimmings – with prawn cocktails, and a plate piled high with ham and potato salad and a beautiful tomato salad, as well as gluten-free and dairy-free options and vegan options. “Santa’s been very busy and we’ve just been sharing in that celebration of community, which is a great way of ending and bringing to a close, just for a short period of time, that loneliness that many of us are feeling at this time of year.”