The Edmonton Muse was proud to stand behind Brenda Der for her 15th annual "Christmas Party for the Less Fortunate".
Brenda Der used to be the force of nature behind B's Diner. If you were down on your luck and needed a hot meal, all you needed to do was walk into B's Diner and Brenda would make sure that you were taken care of. Even though the Diner closed the doors almost two years ago, Brenda still continues to help the less fortunate here in Edmonton.
Brenda lost her son Jeremy in a drowning accident while they were out on a family trip about 7 years ago. The big Christmas Dinner is done in memory of Jeremy. It is a very important part of Brenda's year. This is my third year with Brenda, my second working alongside her as her Volunteer Coordinator.
What does it take to put on a dinner that feeds between 400 and 600 people? A lot of work!
The initial stages of planning are finding sponsors to get the food for the dinner and the hampers that go out to the families. Oh I forgot to mention – this isn't "just" a dinner. Brenda will generally do at least 50 Christmas hampers for families in need around the city. She also puts meals together for seniors and veterans. That is a whole lot of food!
This year we were fortunate enough to have the Forester's Foundation as our corporate sponsor for the dinner portion of the event. Many thanks to Jeremiah Renner for putting all of that in motion. They have to submit a proposal to get the funding and then they go through all of the organizing and work to pick up all of the food items that are needed for the dinner. Thank you Jeremiah and all of your Forester's!!
B's Diner Christmas Dinner 2017