It’s five minutes to chow time Thursday afternoon at the Christmas Eve Community Meal at the First Congregational Church and outside of the kitchen, organizer Bart Caldara is giving last minute instructions to his volunteers.

“This is what it’s all about,” Caldara said, a Santa-styled apron around his neck and Santa hat perched on his head. “Those of you who aren’t serving: talk to people. It’s Christmas. Everybody loves having someone to talk to. (People) are not only here because they are homeless or whatever, they just want somebody to be with today.”

He cautioned the servers to give adequate servings, but not to mound the plates with food, since everyone was welcome to seconds and third servings.

“Anything we got leftover today will show up again for Sunday breakfast,”Caladara joked, evoking good-natured groans from the gathering.

Caldara has gotten to be an old hand at feeding the masses on Christmas Eve. This was the ninth time for the event which has grown every year.

The event began about nine and half years ago when the church located at 5934 Eighth Ave. began serving Sunday morning breakfast to those needing a helping hand.

The following holiday season, Caldara’s family changed their usual Christmas Eve gathering to earlier in the week. The family decided to use the time Christmas Eve giving back to the community.

That first year, about 100 meals were served, said Caldara, adding that they don’t take a head count. Instead, he said, the dishwashers keep track of the dishes they wash.

Last year, that was about 400 plates worth of meals, including endless desserts.

It’s still a family affair for Caldara, whose wife Tina and other family members help out at the event. This year, Caldara’s mother Laurel Caldara in Illinois cooked a 25 pound-turkey and his mother-in-law Sandy Betz cooked two more of the five turkeys.

Other volunteers came from the congregation, Holy Spirit Community Church and the Wesley Methodist Church as well as Boy Scout troops 551 and 544.

The meal serves not only to feed the hungry, but to give the volunteers a sense of purpose, Caldara said.

Flyers were passed out at the Shalom Center a few days before the event, and word gets around on the street fast.

“These people are real nice here,” one patron said. “They are always smiling. They make Christmas special.”

This was the second year for volunteer Denise Abig.

“Some eat here and some take home a Styrofoam container to eat later,” she said. “Some do both, but that’s OK.”

This year food donations mainly came through Super Valu, Model Market and Fresh Market in Kenosha.

Abig said at Fresh Market grocery store, employees usually get to take home the leftover fruits and vegetables, but voted this year to turn over their usual share of the produce for the church meal.

The donations of food were so plentiful this year that it only cost the church about $1.50 per plate and Caldara said, monetary donations for the event nearly covered it all.