This was the text from a Story in the Long Beach Press Telegram about the event I do every year on Xmas Day.
LONG BEACH – The table where Ken and Marie Bennett sat was like a postcard of what the free annual Christmas meal at The Reef restaurant Sunday is supposed to be about.
On Christmas, more than 2,000 residents of Long Beach, young and elderly, homeless and families gathered for the event in its ninth year at The Reef, but dating back much longer. Bill Tallichet, whose father founded the Specialty Restaurants chain, says his family has been offering free holiday meals at various restaurants for about 40 years.
When he was a boy, Tallichet said his late father, David, would cart the family to multiple restaurants he owned on Christmas day for the events.
Before moving the dinner to The Reef, the Tallichets hosted a Christmas meal at their Pieces of Eight restaurant, now Shanghai Red’s, in San Pedro.
The Bennetts are white and elderly. The couple, from Bellflower, have come to the annual meal every year since it began at The Reef and before that had gone to a similar event at Mum’s Restaurant, before John Morris’ Pine Avenue eatery closed its doors.
On Sunday, sharing the table with the Bennetts were Jimmy Strattion and Vicki Early, a couple of African- American Navy veterans who were attending for the first time with Strattion’s 3-year- old grandson, Kiararron Lane.
The vets met at the Villages of Cabrillo.
Early says she has permanent housing at the facility where she moved after she became homeless several
years ago after losing her job. She has been looking for work for a couple years.
Also at the table was a woman who identified herself only as Yullan, who had come to the event from San Pedro.
They are people from very different backgrounds, who, under other circumstances, would be unlikely to meet. But on this day they were sharing in the holiday spirit and eating well from the Reef’s sumptuous buffet, hosted by the Tallichets and the Salvation Army.
“My wife and I have been coming for nine years,” Ken said. “We know Santa (aka Alan Katz). Every year he comes over and sees us. We also usually meet up with my mother-in-law.”
“It helps to get everybody out,” said Yullan, who was here for the second straight year after reading about the event in the newspaper. “It gets you out of your skin and you get to meet other people. Otherwise I’d just be sitting at home.”
“This is very smooth,” Early said. “And the decorations are beautiful.”
Kiarron said the best part was the clowns, who circulated through the crowd and made balloon animals, like the poodle the boy played with.
Strattion said he would pick up a gift for the boy outside where Long Beach firefighters were passing out gifts from their “Spark of Love” campaign.
Katz, who plays Santa, said seeing familiar faces, like the Bennetts, gives him a warm feeling.
“It makes my year to see them,” Katz said of the Bennetts. “I know they’re economically challenged. But no matter where they are with their finances, they still have that love for each other. I’ve seen them when they were really down and homeless. They seem very happy this year.”
The meal, which is the same offered to paying clients later in the day for $31.95, is as much for volunteers as the diners.
In addition to the Salvation Army, which provided a large band playing Christmas music, there were hundreds of volunteers from church, social and business groups throughout Long Beach, not to mention the firefighters who hauled in huge boxes of toys for the kids.
Will Nash, with the Long Beach Fire Department, said while donations lagged a little and demand was up in the tough economic times, he was still grateful to the community.
“I’m not complaining. The residents who gave were great. I’m always impressed,” Nash said.
Other volunteers included people like Joan Stiehl and the East Spring Street Business Association.
With the help of other groups, they gathered 2,000 pairs of socks to distribute and spent much of the year knitting hats and other items to ward off the cold.
Within the first hour, more than 1,000 had passed through meal line and a long line still waited, leading organizers to predict one of their better showings in recent years.
“We have enough for food for 3,000″ Bill Tallichet said. “Long Beach has always showed up in big numbers.”
