Volunteers at a prior free Christmas dinner provided by the Bandera family. For the fifth year, the nonprofit will be returning to Norwich to serve free Christmas dinners at the Norwich American Legion Post 189. Dine in and take out will be provided from 12 to 2 p.m. (Submitted photo)

NORWICH — Enjoy a free hot meal provided by the Bandera family this Christmas from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Norwich American Legion Post 189, located at 29 Sheldon Street in Norwich. Meals are available for dining in or take out.

This year's menu includes turkey, ham, stuffing, corn, yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, assorted desserts, homemade cookies, Chobani yogurt, Gilligan's ice cream, Byrne Dairy milk, coffee, and tea.

Bandera Family representative Bill Bandera said the annual Christmas dinners are made possible by their team of more than 100 volunteers. This year's dinner marks the fifth year the organization has provided free Christmas meals in Norwich.

"Norwich is awesome. I can’t tell you how wonderful the volunteers are, all the people in the community, the organizations. It’s unique that they come together so well and work so well together," he said.

"The minute I walked into the city and started knocking on doors, people responded so positively and were so encouraging. And to this day five years later they’re still just as committed, they’re still just as loyal. They want to see this thing go, like I do, as long as we have a need. They step up every year. It’s an honor and a privilege to be a part of that and watch that happen."

He said two volunteers are especially responsible for the success of the annual Norwich dinner: coordinator Hope Woodcock-Ross and driver coordinator Pam Beely.

Woodcock-Ross has been volunteering in Norwich for all five years, and took over as coordinator in 2021. She assists with scheduling volunteers for the four days of prep work that goes in to providing hundreds of Christmas dinners.

Beely coordinates between United Way and volunteer delivery drivers, who will assist with delivering pre-ordered take out meals on Christmas Day. Bandera said although the in-person meals are served in Norwich, as long as there are drivers willing to transport the meals, they will go anywhere in Chenango County and beyond with a free dinner.

Volunteers are always needed at the Bandera Family Christmas Dinners. To sign up to volunteer, visit BanderaChristmas.com. Bandera said a volunteer schedule will be emailed to show what days, times, and roles have vacancies.

Volunteers have the choice of deciding how much time they'd like to donate, as well as what tasks they'd like to do to help out.

Last year, the Norwich team served and delivered around 700 meals, and Bandera said he anticipates serving closer to 1,000 meals this year, with an overall goal of 1,200 meals. Any leftovers at the end of the day are delivered to the Oxford Veterans Home and the food pantry at St Paul's Episcopal Church in Oxford.

"We’re meeting a goal that we put out there because we want to reach every possible person that could use a free meal, and there’s a lot of those people," he said. "If people know it’s there and they know how to obtain it — go to the Legion, get a take out, sit down, or get a delivery — we should be able to serve that many meals every year, not because we’re happy there’s that big of a need, but we’re very happy to meet a need that exists every year everywhere."

The annual Christmas dinners are also made possible by the generosity of several area businesses and organizations, who provide in-kind donations of food items and monetary donations that allow the organization to purchase items they're short on. Bandera said this year's two biggest donors were the RC Smith Foundation and Mirabito.

Monetary donations are also accepted on BanderaChristmas.com, or by calling 607-231-0706 to send a check. Bandera said funds donated in Norwich will go directly back into the Norwich dinner, to serve the community that supported their cause.

"We don’t take Norwich money and use it in Binghamton. We try to keep Norwich donations for Norwich. The only thing that crosses over is where a donation may come from, only because all the big in-kind donors are all in Binghamton, primarily," Bandera explained. "We got a big donation from Cisco this year, so some of the stuff that they gave us will cover all three cities. So for example, stuffing. All the stuffing this year is coming from Cisco."

In the future, Bandera said he hopes to partner with more organizations to further spread the word about the annual free meals.

"Maybe some of the school districts to partner with them to get fliers or information out. We’ve been working on that a little bit the last couple of years, and so I would say this is the only thing I can think of help-wise, because all the organizations in Norwich are already helping us putting fliers out with their constituents and their consumers and everybody they work with," said Bandera.

"We’d love to talk to the schools and see if they would be willing to have us give a presentation, or fliers that go out to the community just primarily for awareness and marketing, just so people just know that we’re there."

The Bandera family Christmas dinners began in 1989, with Bill Bandera's parents, Bill and Carolyn Bandera, serving 68 free meals at the American Legion Post 80 in Binghamton. Since then, a nonprofit was born and has continued to grow, with Bandera now at the helm.

"Why wouldn't you do this if there's a need?"

More information on the free Bandera family Christmas dinners can be found on BanderaChristmas.com or by calling 607-231-0706.