Surrey school serves Christmas dinner to the needy

Christmas dinner was served Tuesday night at a high school in Surrey -- not to students but by students.

The 16th annual holiday supper, hosted by teens at Tamanawis Secondary School, serves up a holiday feast to people in Surrey's community who are in need.

Each year, the dinner has grown, and this year marks the school's largest ever dinner, with an attendance of 320 guests.

Students cooked turkey, stuffing and all the traditional fixings in the school's cafeteria.

Culinary and leadership student Tristan Dyke said the students start organizing the event in October.

"We organize the food, the entrees, the dishes. We organize contacting businesses, getting donations for everything that we need for the dinner," he said.

The head cooks are students taking culinary classes at the school, assisted by their peers in leadership classes and the rest of the student body. This year, the students cooked 32 turkeys, 200 pounds of potatoes and 100 lbs of carrots.

"We know that they don't get to experience this on a regular basis like most people do, and it's just a special night for them," said student Parmeet Sidhu.

They're not the only ones benefiting, either.

"The kids receive so much benefit. You know because they learn so much. They learn how to become adults. They learn how to give back to the community. And that's so incredibly important in our society," said chef Bob Whitford.

Teacher Dave McCallum said the even has grown so much that this year, the school actually had to turn people away.

"It was ... a few families that they started with and every year it has morphed and grown to the point ... we have no more room to grow," he said.

Other schools in the same district are holding benefit dinners as well. But, what's going on at Tamanawis is by far the biggest and longest running dinner of its kind. To date, over 4,600 people have been fed.

The CBC will be hosting its annual open house and Food Bank drive on December 6, from 5:30 a.m. PT - 7:30 p.m. PT.