Correspondent photo / Nancilynn Gatta William Naylor, 2 of Warren, talks to Santa Claus, who listens to his wish list on Saturday during the Warren Family Mission’s annual Christmas dinner.

WARREN — The weekend before Christmas, volunteers from Trumbull County served and connected with fellow members of their community Saturday afternoon at the Warren Family Mission, which hosted its annual Christmas dinner.

More than 200 volunteers cooked, served, delivered and checked out the carryout of Christmas dinner at the mission, as well as gave out age-appropriate gifts and a Christmas stocking, plus did face painting, ran the coloring contest and cleaned up after the guests.

“We’ve been providing Christmas dinner since 1998,” said Dominic Mararri, director of public relations.

The hot meal included ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls, drinks and dessert.

More than 350 guests stood in the cold in a line that wrapped around the building to receive their Christmas dinner. And they all had different reasons for being there.

One woman said that all of her family had died.

“It is just my dad and me now and having dinner here, we could be around people,” she said.

Jennifer Drummond of Warren was familiar with the mission’s programs during other seasons.

“My younger son comes to the summer program here. He sees a lot of the staff that he knows. We love to come here. I feel the Christmas spirit here,” she said.

It was also a community of family. Hannah Griffin of Mecca applied paint to children’s faces. Her mom works in the accounting department at the mission.

Holly Steere, representing Medgas Associates of Warren, wore a Santa hat as she served food alongside her daughters, Zoey Blackburn and Emma Blackburn.

For Cortland residents Toni and Mick Gallagher, this was their first time volunteering for the mission’s Christmas dinner. They took a ticket from the people picking up their Christmas dinner and brought it to the guests to bring home.

“I told my husband, we have to help. There are so many people doing bad out there,” said Toni, a retired teacher.

Her husband added, “We wanted to give back to our community. There are a lot of people in need.”

This was Jack Toriello of Champion’s seventh year volunteering to serve Christmas dinner at the Warren Family Mission. He had a similar reason for volunteering.

“This is a way for me to give back to the community,” he said as he served and greeted guests coming through the buffet line.

“The need is great. The high costs of food and other essentials affects families. This meal brings people together,” Mararri said.

Caitlin White, director of the Warren Family Mission, said that it had 90 pans of ham, 75 pans of stuffing, 75 pans of mashed potatoes, 17 buckets of gravy and 2,700 cookies in preparation for 2,700 meals.

“If we need more meals, we will find a way,” White said.

The mission’s math was quite accurate. It served 2,694 meals, which included a new way to meet the need with delivery service to homes. Volunteers delivered 1,804 meals, prepared 537 takeout meals and served 353 people at the mission’s dining hall.

However, the food is not the entire purpose of the dinner.

“We are not just providing a meal. We are providing hope,” Mararri said.