Volunteers Feed Needy People Across Nation

Volunteers in Atlanta cooked hundreds of hams and turkeys for the homeless Wednesday, and needy families lined up before dawn in Lancaster, Pa., for a Christmas Eve dinner with all the trimmings as Americans began celebrating the Christmas holiday.

President Reagan, who is spending the holiday in Washington and planned a quiet Christmas dinner with friends at the White House, made Christmas Eve phone calls to five servicemen and women.

“What you are doing on behalf of your fellow countrymen is nothing short of heroic,” Reagan said, according to remarks released by the White House. “I know it isn’t easy to be away from home and family right now, but believe me, they--and all of the American people--are very proud of you.”

Last-Minute Shopping

For many, Wednesday was a day for last-minute shopping. But, amid all of the gift-giving, the needy were not forgotten.

In Detroit, Salvation Army volunteers began preparing 2,000 dinners to be served today. “As long as people are lined up, they expect to feed them,” spokeswoman Jacqueline Pinage said.

Olga Osby, coordinator of Feed the Hungry, a Christmas meal program in Atlanta, said about 40 volunteer cooks showed up Wednesday at two Atlanta high schools to prepare turkeys, ham and roast beef for the dinner. “We started cooking around 8 a.m. this morning and will continue until about noon tomorrow,” she said.

In New York, the Children’s Aid Society cooked 270 turkey dinners for poor Harlem families and wrapped 400 food baskets for poor people living at Manhattan’s Prince George welfare hotel.

Chefs Feed the Poor

Chefs at some of the swankiest restaurants in Washington, D.C., prepared Christmas Eve dinner for 1,500 homeless people in the lobby of the Health and Human Services Department.

“We want to make it a good time because Christmas is a very hard time for folks,” said Mitch Snyder of the Community for Creative Non-Violence, an organization that helps the homeless.