PORT HADLOCK — The Olympic Community Action Programs has canceled the annual Christmas feast that it has provided free to the public for the past 21 years.
The meal at the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum has been canceled because OlyCAP has lost volunteers and sponsors, according to agency officials.
“This is not going to happen this year unless we get calls from people who want to come forward and manage this,” said Jeff Michaelson, OlyCAP’s community services director.
“It’s not cheap to do this and it was never meant as an OlyCAP-funded activity.”
Michaelson said the decision to offer only one holiday meal, Christmas or Thanksgiving, was made at the end of 2014, with the decision to cancel Christmas announced in October.
Michaelson said the cost of food is about $2,100. OlyCAP has also donated its staff time, which adds up to about $2,000.
“These functions aren’t something you can pull together in a day,” said Ginger Bischel, OlyCAP’s executive coordinator.
“There are many details that need to come together. We need to find a chef and volunteers to coordinate the meal.”
Said Rainy Blankenship, who manages the Tri-Area Community Center facility: “The volunteers we had were doing this for 20 years and didn’t want to do it anymore.
“If someone wants to gather donations and plan the meal the center will be available at no charge,” Blankenship said.
On Thanksgiving, 350 people turned up for a holiday meal, the largest group in its history.
Even though the feast has been canceled, the Meals on Wheels component that serves 120-140 people will still operate, Michaelson said.
Michaelson said that the hope is that both holiday meals will be served in 2016.
A meeting is planned in January to “start a conversation about how to proceed,” he said.
Michaelson said that many of the people attending the meals are not low-income “and probably have other places to go.”
As for low-income people, there are other available community meals, he said.
The cancellation of the event will leave a void in the holiday meal landscape that the Boiler Room in Port Townsend will strive to alleviate, according to Amy Smith, Boiler Room executive director.
“We served 150 meals on Thanksgiving and now expect to serve a greater number due to this,” Smith said of the cancellation.
The Boiler Room, 711 Water St., will begin serving the Christmas meal at 3 p.m. and will continue “until the food runs out,” Smith said.
Smith sympathized with OlyCAP’s situation, saying that “volunteers always wander off.”
In a role separate from her work at the Boiler Room, Smith was elected to the Port Townsend City Council in the Nov. 3 election.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
