Cynthia Barnard watches as Rachel Mitchell, 6, and Izzy Carusone, 7, right, serve desserts at Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church's free Christmas Day dinner Wednesday. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

WESTBROOK -- If not for the annual Community Christmas Day Dinner at the Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church, Ellen Burrill would be serving 20 siblings, nephews, nieces and others.

"It's a nice place to come when you don't want to cook," she said.

Burrill, decked out in a festive red sweater with a brooch fashioned to resemble a wreath, joined her sister, Cathy Giobbi, 76, who attended the dinner for the first time.

The two women informed their would-be guests, who hail from Maine, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland and elsewhere, that Christmas dinner would be different this year. "It's a lot of work," said Burrill, who is 81. And, she added, "they all like to eat."

Ellen Burrill thanks volunteer Joy Knight, right, after having Christmas dinner at the Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church with her sister Cathy Giobbi. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

"I suggested coming here," Giobbi said. "She got out of cooking and I got a wonderful meal."

Joy Knight, coordinator of the dinner that began 18 years ago, said 300 meals, donated and cooked, were expected to be served with 50 take-outs.

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"People just need an extra meal or they can't cook," she said. "I never liked Christmas until I started working here. I used to go to a Chinese restaurant and the movies."

The meals featured ham, carrots, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, peas and about three dozen apple pies and chocolate cream pies made the morning of Christmas Eve.

Inflation has driven up the cost of the dinner, which is funded by donations, by 20% to 25% this year, Knight said. And if it's not the higher prices, it's the smaller packaging without lower prices that's adding to cost pressures, she said.

Volunteers serve guests at Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church's free Christmas dinner. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Anita Johnson and her son, Charles Sheldon, said they discovered the dinner while looking online for a free meal. They said they will be evicted from their housing Tuesday and have no place to go.

It's not just the needy, however, who come to the Main Street church with its expansive community room adorned with several Christmas trees. Julie Benavides of the Yarmouth Congregational Church said she's seen visitors put $20 bills into the donations jar at the entrance to the hall. "That's not a poor person," she said.

"A lot of people are here because they don't have anyone else around," Benavides said.

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As many as 50 volunteers stage the annual dinner, with about half who are church members buying and cooking food and the other half who are not members, she said. Volunteers work as table and buffet servers, cooks, dish washers and a musician.

The dinner is publicized in notices to housing centers, and social service and other agencies.

Ralph Berry, a 90-year-old retired industrial arts teacher, was spooning out mashed potatoes. "I don't cook them, I just peel them," he said.

Asked how long he's volunteered, Berry said, "Too long."

Benavides takes a different view. "I get more joy out of this than people who are eating," she said.

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